It surely look to me like Democrats in the state of Washington are trying to steal the gubernatorial election.
Here’s the story, as best I can remember it. Democrat Christina Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi were the gubernatorial candidates there and, on election night, they finished very close to each other – a few thousand votes. Democrats asked for a recount.
Then, Democrats found a whole bunch more absentee ballots in King County – a county that normally goes about 60 percent to 40 percent for Democrats. They were also allowed to get the names and addresses of about 900 provisional voters who had signature problems on their ballots and, once Dems found they had voted for Gregoire, they were taken to the election board to have their signatures validates. They also found about 10,000 absentee ballots there that hadn’t been discovered to that point and hadn’t been counted. After all that, Rossi led by about 260 votes.
The state then performed a machine recount. But Demos then found about 700 more ballots that were “undervoted” – had no recorded vote for governor. After some chad-searching, the Rossi lead narrowed to about 42 votes. John Fund pretty much outlined all this in a Wall Street Journal column.
You’d think it would be settled after these two recounts, right? Heh…you so wish! Democrats then asked (and paid for, with national funds) a hand recount of the two machine recount. The recount was extending Rossi’s lead a little – to something like 120 votes. Then – Presto! Democrats found about 570 more absentee ballots that had bad or missing signatures. And on top of that, they found 22 more ballots that were…well….here’s a quote.
The board will also decide the fate of 22 other uncounted ballots, found this week in the side bins of plastic base units in which polling machines sit.
All ballots should have been logged on election night and returned in a sealed bag to election headquarters, but these 22 apparently weren’t. They’ve been lying unsecured at various polling places since the election.
Did I mention that they found all these ballots in King County again?
So after that recount, Rossi picked up some additinal votes. As of Thursday, he led by about 70 votes, with three counties – King County among them – still outstanding. But that recount wasn’t entirely above-board, as this local Powerline reader notes.
During this hand recount the King County Canvassing Board is “interpreting” the ballots, usually along party lines (two Democrats, one Republican). Pencil marks next to a candidate’s name are counted as a voter intent, a ballot that was voted straight for one party but without a vote for governor is interpreted as showing intent to vote for that party’s gubenatorial candidate (Washington State has a strong tradition of crossing party lines, but the Canvassing Board went this way by a vote of…guess what, 2-1 along party lines). In another case someone wrote in Christine Rossi (the Democratic candidate is Christine Gregoire, the Republican candidate is Dino Rossi). The Canvassing Board voted (2-1) that the voter’s intent was the Democrat, Christine Gregoire.
So guess what happened next? Anyone?
With Washington state in the middle of a recount of its amazingly close governor’s race, election officials in Seattle’s King County entered a warehouse Friday and found a plastic tray containing 150 misplaced ballots.
The discovery brings the number of belatedly discovered ballots to 723 in the heavily Democratic county potentially enough to swing the election to Democrat Christine Gregoire.
Imagine that! They found another 150 ballots just lying around in a warehouse patiently waiting to be counted in a county that normally goes 60 percent to Democrats! I, personally, am amazed at Gregoire’s good fortune.
Finally, the Republicans went to court to make sure all the magically-discovered ballots in King County were excluded from the count. Their primary objection is that there’s been absolutely no chain of custody on the ballots and no guarantee that there was no tampering. Friday, a judge decided in their favor. Democrats expect to take the case to the Washington Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Republican former Secretary of State has said that things are so fouled up at this point that it might not be a bad idea just to hold a brand new election. The head of the Republicans in the state seems amenable to the idea and the current Secretary of State says it’s not a bad idea either. This has, as you may imagine, not set well with Democrats.
“Last week the Republicans were saying we need to resolve this as quickly as possible,” Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said. “This week they’re saying we need another election.”
I imagine that Ms. Brost has forgotten that every time the state neared a quick resolution, Democrats managed to “find” a bunch more previously unseen and uncounted ballots and demanded yet another recount.
Are the Democrats cheating? It would be nearly impossible to prove save an eyewitness or two coming forward, but from where I sit, it surely looks like they’re up to some serious “Florida in 2000″ shenanigans.
