Redstate

By Charles Bird Posted in Elections — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

At the risk of sounding like a wishy-washy flip-flopper, I have no choice but to change my position. I hope fellow Redstaters will understand. After the third recount in the Washington State governor's race, I wrote in several comment sections in several weblogs that Dino Rossi should concede the election to Christine Gregoire, provided that an independent audit be conducted and that the state legislature enact laws that would prevent the re-occurrence of all these voting mishaps. That position is now untenable, and now I'm firmly on the side of a revote. Here's why.

Unverified and unvalidated provisional ballots were counted as legitimate votes.

If a provisional ballot is not verified and validated, the presumption holds that it is invalid, illegitimate and illegal. According to the Seattle Times:

An unknown number of provisional voters, some of whom may not even have been registered to vote, improperly put their ballots directly into vote-counting machines at polling places, King County's elections superintendent said yesterday.

Once those ballots went into the machines, there was no way to separate them from legitimate ballots.

This is a HUGE DEAL. Let's translate the latter paragraph. What this means is that an unknown number of invalid ballots were counted by King County poll workers as legitimate votes. How many illegitimate ballots were there? Somewhere between hundreds and thousands. John Carlson, on his radio show today, reported that poll workers on the front lines observed hundreds of unverified and unvalidated--and therefore illegal--ballots counted as legitimate votes. We also know that the number of ballots counted in King County outnumbered the list of voters who voted by 3,539. In five western Washington counties, there are 8,419 more ballots than voters. The final number in King County, when the dust settles, is estimated to be an unexplainable 1,200-vote discrepancy, according to King County Election Supervisor Dean Logan, speaking on the Dori Monson radio show.

Whether you accept that there are hundreds or thousands of illegitimate ballots, the fact remains that the number of illegal ballots exceeds the 129-vote margin of victory as certified by the State Auditor. There is no other conclusion that can be made except that the vote tally in King County is tainted because the will of the people cannot be determined with any reasonable level of confidence. That alone should be reason enough to call for a revote.

Felons illegally voted.

Under state law, convicted felons are prohibited from voting unless they have applied for and are granted voting rights from the court. In early December, the BIAW requested a list of felons--who do not have the right to vote--from the four largest counties, and they are cross-checking the felon rolls to the voter rolls. In Pierce County, they found that 52 felons illegally voted, with another 40 or so still being investigated. The King County felon roll was received only a week ago and is still under examination. There are nearly three times more votes in King County than Pierce County, so it would be reasonable that three times the number of felons illegally voted in King County. In just two counties, it is likely that the number of illegal votes by felons will exceed the 129-vote margin of victory. Because of this, the vote tallies are tainted because the will of the people cannot be determined with any reasonable level of confidence. That alone should be reason enough to call for a revote.

There is legal precedence for a revote.

It happened in Washington in a county election race, and it's going to happen in North Carolina.

The State Board of Elections voted Wednesday morning to hold a statewide special election for the disputed Commissioner of Agriculture race.

The board's three Democrats overruled the two Republicans in ordering the larger revote, but there are questions as to whether the order will stand up to a legal challenge promised by Republicans. The board's rules typically require four votes to order a new election.

The revote comes after Browns' Summit Republican Steve Troxler led Democrat Britt Cobb by 2,342 votes in a race that saw more than 3 million votes cast during the general election on Nov. 3. But Carteret County voting machines lost more than 4,400 ballots cast electronically during early voting. Because those votes could affect the outcome, state election officials needed to find some way to fix the snafu.

The State Board of Elections voted last month to resolve the problem by ordering a special election in Carteret County. But a judge later reversed that decision and ordered the state board to find a different resolution.

On the radio this afternoon, John Fund said there was about a 1-in-500 chance that the outcome would change, but the decision was a made for a statewide revote anyway.

There are other reasons as well, ably listed by Revote Washington. Credit must be given to the gang at Soundpolitics.com, since they're the ones who've been ferreting, finding and uncovering the growing number of irregularities.

One other thing. Dan Evans is one of the state's most esteemed politicians, respected by Republicans and Democrats alike. He's been highly regarded for a long time, at least back to the time when my primary mode of transportation was an electric blue Schwinn Stingray with banana-shaped seat. He was a three-time governor and one of the best in our state's history. After Scoop Jackson's sudden and fatal heart attack in 1983, Evans became our US Senator. When Dan Evans puts his hard-earned reputation and credibility at stake by calling for a revote, the movers and shakers of this state should sit up and take notice.

Ruth Bennett, the Libertarian candidate, has also stepped up and called for a revote. The political landscape is not favorable. There is a Democrat in the governor's chair and the state legislature is controlled by Democrats. The legal contesting of the election must proceed, but the reality is crystal clear to me now: the election for governor of the State of Washington is tainted and undeterminable, and this cloud will not be removed until there is a revote. Now is the time for all good Republicans and Democrats and Libertarians to come to the aid of the electoral process. Now is the time for Washington residents sign the petition and make this happen.