Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Another Christmas miracle?
In Washington the King County Election Director has "discovered" 521 new ballots from his Democrat dominated county -- 6 weeks after the election. The absentee ballots were allegedly rejected because the signatures on the ballots didn't match the signatures on the voting registrations. As the votes were never counted, the Director has indicated that they will be certified to the county's previous tally. There is nothing the courts can do to stop this certification, although the state supreme court was successful in preventing the Democrats from counting 3,000 previously rejected ballots.
This "discovery" wouldn't matter -- indeed, I'm sure it wouldn't have even happened -- were the state not in it's second, hand recount of ballots in the governor's race. As of the first, machine recount, Republican Rossi held a 42-vote lead over Democrat Gregoire. Unfortunately for the Dems, with 24 of the state's 39 counties recounted, Rossi has picked up an extra 46 votes, so their new votes will need to split pretty strongly for Gregoire to change the outcome.
Personally, I don't care who is the governor of Washington. There's no chance I will ever live near there, and, to be honest, the more blue it is, the more likely it is that we here in the red states will benefit from business fleeing excessive regulations and taxes. That being said, I do have a problem with using constant recounts as a stall while you try to dredge up enough votes to beat your opponent.
Look, I support making sure that every citizen can vote (once!) no matter what their race, color, gender, or creed, but I'm not so enamored with "democracy" that I'm willing to damage certainty in the election process. While I'm not saying that what is happening in King County is improper or illegal, it sure looks funny and it probably should be. There needs to be limits in accepting new ballots. What if they hadn't been found until next July? Would the Dems expect Gregoire to be certified as governor after Rossi had served in the position for 1/2 a year? I don't think so.
This "discovery" wouldn't matter -- indeed, I'm sure it wouldn't have even happened -- were the state not in it's second, hand recount of ballots in the governor's race. As of the first, machine recount, Republican Rossi held a 42-vote lead over Democrat Gregoire. Unfortunately for the Dems, with 24 of the state's 39 counties recounted, Rossi has picked up an extra 46 votes, so their new votes will need to split pretty strongly for Gregoire to change the outcome.
Personally, I don't care who is the governor of Washington. There's no chance I will ever live near there, and, to be honest, the more blue it is, the more likely it is that we here in the red states will benefit from business fleeing excessive regulations and taxes. That being said, I do have a problem with using constant recounts as a stall while you try to dredge up enough votes to beat your opponent.
Look, I support making sure that every citizen can vote (once!) no matter what their race, color, gender, or creed, but I'm not so enamored with "democracy" that I'm willing to damage certainty in the election process. While I'm not saying that what is happening in King County is improper or illegal, it sure looks funny and it probably should be. There needs to be limits in accepting new ballots. What if they hadn't been found until next July? Would the Dems expect Gregoire to be certified as governor after Rossi had served in the position for 1/2 a year? I don't think so.
Centinel 12:18 PM #