Archives for December 2004

The other day I sent an email to Dino Rossi advising him to concede, and got a very polite email back from his campaign manager. Well today, I’d like to publicly retract my advice. Dino… stick with this as far as you can go… take it to the county auditors. Take it to the Legislature. Take it to the courts.

My change of heart comes after reading Matt Rosenberg’s piece on (un)Sound Politics, which surprisingly echoed my sentiments. At first I was impressed by Matt’s relatively tempered tone, and reasonable arguments. But then I read the comments from (u)SP’s loyal readers, and realized damn… they’re living in cloud cuckoo land. So why not let the Republicans self-destruct by wallowing in their anger and paranoia?

The fact is, unless Rossi’s got real, legal-type evidence of electoral fraud and corruption — enough to change the outcome of this election — he doesn’t stand a chance of winning an election contest in court. And as Danny Westneat suggests in his column today in The Seattle Times:

Paradoxically, a contest could be our best hope to move on. It would force critics to put up or shut up on this notion that the recount was rigged. They’d have to prove vote-counting manipulation in a courtroom, instead of just shouting it over the airwaves.

Public discourse has been so poisoned by unsupported insinuations of widespread malfeasance, that an election contest may be the only way to fully clear the air. So I say, bring it on. If King County is so corrupt, prove it in a court of law.

Plus, the longer Rossi draws out this election, the less he’s going to appear a victim, and the more he’s going to look like a whiny, arrogant, hypocrite. If Rossi wants to brand himself the biggest loser in state history, that’s fine by me.

So my advice to you is fight, Dino, fight! I’m sure Maria Cantwell is looking forward to a punch-drunk opponent in 2006.

It’s time for disappointed Rossi supporters to put this election behind them, and start looking towards the future. Apparently, that’s what Dino Rossi is doing:

(Thanks to Andrew at Permanent Defense who discovered this with me while we were on the phone.)

King County has certified the results of the manual recount: Gregoire +358, Rossi +179. That means Gregoire picked up net 179 votes in King County, giving her a commanding 130-vote lead statewide.

Of the 735 misfiled ballots, the canvassing board counted only 566 of them. Those ballots went 311 for Gregoire, 191 for Rossi, 26 for Bennett, 2 write-ins, 35 under-votes and one over-vote.

In an excellent article in The Seattle Times today, reporter Susan Gilmore attempts to explain the role of the King County canvassing board, and how surprising little controversy has arisen from what could potentially have been a partisan fire-fight:

The three-member panel, which decides which ballots are eligible to be counted and certifies election returns, is made up of two Democrats and one Republican.

But despite the partisan swirl that has surrounded the governor’s race, nearly all canvassing-board decisions in this election have been unanimous, and members say their focus is on trying to apply the rules fairly.

For this factual description of the process, Gilmore was criticized by right-wing blog (un)Sound Politics, in their usual, dismissive fashion:

Well, of course they would say that. Or at least two of them would.

So to set the record straight, I decided to ask the other member, Republican Dan Satterberg, who was appointed to the canvassing board to represent King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng. Here is what he wrote back:

The King County Canvassing Board reviewed around 1,600 ballots during the manual recount that were forwarded to us by the recount boards for determination of voter intent. The vast majority of those questioned ballots were resolved by a unanimous consensus of the Board. There were probably only about 20 contested votes, though I did not keep track of the number. While the split was always 2-1, of course, I was not always on the losing side.

I think Dan’s words require no parsing.

Of course, the folks at (un)Sound Politics could have asked Dan themselves — they’ve claimed to have emailed with him before. But they didn’t. Because their goal is to sow as much public distrust in the process as possible, so as to delegitimize a Gregoire administration, and possibly force a new election.

The truth is, the process has been transparent, orderly, and fair… even in those counties with no Democrats on the canvassing boards. And canvassing board members like Dan Satterberg deserve a lot of the credit.

Kudos to Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed for his guest column in today’s Seattle Times: “Standards in place for a fair recount.” And kudos to the Times for printing it in such a timely fashion.

Mr. Reed dispassionately explains our electoral standards:

Your ballot counts if:

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King County has announced the unofficial results of the hand recount: Gregoire +47, Rossi -12, for a net 59 vote pickup for Gregoire. That leaves Gregoire leading statewide… by 10 votes.

Gregoire’s lead is likely to increase by over 100 votes, once the results of the 723 “misfiled” ballots are added in tomorrow afternoon.

Dino Rossi & Company have been urging Christine Gregoire to concede since election night, and now that the manual recount has confirmed that Gregoire is the actual winner, in a statutorily final way, it is time to return the favor. Progressive Majority has set up form where you can send a letter asking Dino Rossi to concede the governor’s race. Please join me in urging Rossi to do the right thing for the good of the state… and his future political career.

I just love irony.

The Supremes have spoken, and now most of the 723 “misfiled” ballots will be counted, likely pushing Christine Gregoire’s lead to over 100 votes.

So how will the Dino Rossi campaign respond? Well the same people who urged Gregoire to concede in the face of a 42-vote landslide after the machine recount, are now challenging the legitimacy of any Gregoire victory, under any circumstances. No surprise there; R’s have been laying the groundwork to contest this election for weeks.

Republicans now claim that they have hundreds of disenfranchised Rossi voters lined up to contest signature mismatches… more than enough to throw the election back the other way. Rossi is apparently ready to tear open the recounts in the 38 other counties, only one day before the Secretary of State planned to certify the election.

Well, two can play at that game, and I have been assured that Democrats have been busy documenting their disenfranchised voters too, and can match the Republicans “affidavit for affidavit.”

But there is an irony here. Okay, perhaps “irony” is not the right word. How about: an incredibly blatant, arrogant, and galling act of hypocrisy on the part of Dino Rossi.

This is, after all, exactly what the Democrats where asking for the first time before the Supreme Court, an opportunity to recanvass all the rejected ballots so that we could find as many wrongly disenfranchised voters as possible, and count their votes! When Rossi held the lead, he accused Democrats of “changing the rules.” Now that he’s losing he’s ready to toss out the rules entirely.

Whatever.

I sincerely doubt that local elections officials — even those in Republican strongholds — have the same appetite for recanvassing rejected ballots as the Rossi/Vance team. The recount battle is over… we are now seeing first skirmishes of an election contest where the only winners will be high-priced attorneys… and bloggers like me.

The Washington State Supreme Court has just issued a unanimous decision reversing the lower court’s restraining order, meaning the 723 “misfiled” King County ballots may now be counted.

More after I read it….

The contest is over the contest.

The GOP attorney tried to argue out of both sides of his mouth. He essentially admits that the “safety valve” (RCW 29A.60.210) applies to the recount, but not to these 723 ballots, because they have been previously “rejected.” He also argues that the proper place for the Democrats to address these ballots is in a contest, but apparently it would do irreparable harm to Dino Rossi, if he had to challenge them in a contest.

Essentially, there is going to be a contest, and the GOP would rather it be filed by the Democrats, so they can accuse them of dragging this through the courts. At the very least, they would prefer that the burden be on the Democrats to prove in a contest that these ballots should be counted. Oh… and apparently it is all Larry Phillips fault.

As I figured, the GOP case all comes down to whether these ballots were “rejected,” and the King County attorney clearly argues that there was “no affirmative rejection”, but rather, that the ballots were “misfiled.” That said, she also argues that the canvassing board has the right to re-examine rejected ballots, at its discretion.

However, the most important new piece of information learned in the hearing this morning is that King County has located 583 signatures out of the 723 ballots in question. It seems likely that these ballots would add about 120 votes to Christine Gregoire’s margin… if counted.

Oral arguments before the Washington State Supreme court over whether King County should tally the 723 previously uncounted (and unrejected) ballots, will be broadcast live at 9:30AM on TVW. I’ll be watching via streaming video.

Now that it seems clear that Christine Gregoire has won the hand recount, the court can rule dispassionately, without having to worry about reversing an election. But the ruling is important nonetheless, for if the 723 ballots aren’t counted, and the margin stands at only 8, Dino Rossi will surely lead us into the abyss of a contested election. Whereas, add 120 votes to Gregoire’s lead, and Rossi will be forced to think twice.

This is from a “reliable source”, but “unconfirmed” and “unofficial” and all the other tentative qualifiers you can think of, but — not counting the 723 — Democratic number crunchers believe that after King County’s results are added in, Christine Gregoire will lead the manual recount… by less than 10 votes.

Expect the mainstream media to start reporting this tonight.

UPDATE:
I only scooped the AP by a few minutes. It’s in the P-I:

Democratic State Party Chairman Paul Berendt says recount results from King County give Democrat Christine Gregoire an eight-vote statewide victory over Republican Dino Rossi in the governor’s race.

King County Elections has confirmed that both parties received recount data today.

I wonder if Rossi still wants to stop counting votes now that he’s behind?

Thank you Jim “Hill” King for pointing out that the documents filed in tomorrow’s Supreme Court hearing are now available for download from the Secretary of State’s website. And of course, a special thanks to the people at SOS for doing the work to make these documents public.

Let’s have an informed debate.

Apparently there was some sort of hearing yesterday in Judge Arend’s court regarding a bond related to the TRO. I have made available for download a copy of an amended declaration that was filed as part of the hearing, in which Democrats detail the changes in Rossi-won counties that showed an increase in the number of “ballots cast” from the initial count to the machine recount that benefited Dino Rossi:

Adams		7	Rossi +15
Benton		3	Rossi +1
Clallam		1	No change
Clark		9	Rossi +4
Grant		52	Rossi +18
Island		4	Rossi +5
Kittitas	34	Rossi +7
Lewis		3	Rossi +2
Mason		3	Rossi +1
Pierce		9	Rossi +19
Skagit		147	Rossi +18
Spokane		7	Rossi +13
Snohomish	223	Rossi +11

It should be noted that neither party ever asked the courts to disallow these ballots, and in fact it would likely not be possible to outsort most of them after the fact. And some of these new ballots represent significant additions as a percentage of the total county vote; Republicans have offered no explanation for Grant and Kittitas, where the change is so large as to suggest that ballots went unprocessed during the initial certification.

I’m loathe to call a politician a hypocrite, because voters almost seem to demand it from their representatives. But for Dino Rossi to say that these ballots should count and that these errors should be excused, while arguing that King County’s negligence demands that the 723 should be disallowed, is hypocritical even for a politician.

As I’ve said before, errors like these occur in every election, but usually the vote isn’t so close that they make a difference. We need to fix those mistakes we can find — as is the long-established practice — count the votes, and move on.

One of the stupider arguments the Rossifarians have made against Democrats thus far is that they are somehow trying to “change the rules” regarding the 723 absentee ballots that King County mistakenly left uncounted thus far. Oh please.

In any other year, in any other election, in any other county… these ballots, once the error was discovered, would be counted. In fact, The Seattle P-I reports that five other counties — Whatcom, Kittitas, Chelan, Snohomish and Pierce — have already found and added valid ballots that weren’t included in the original count. [“Other counties added votes in recount“]

Indeed, if the Supreme Court grants the GOP their request for an injunction, it is Dino Rossi who will have changed the established rules.

“If they uphold the (lower court) decision, it raises questions not just about what we’ve done, but about what historically all counties have done for as long as I’ve been in the business, which is 25 years,” said Snohomish County Auditor Bob Terwilliger.

That’s not just one auditor’s opinion. The Manual Recount Procedures – FAQ issued by Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed on December 6, states that “As a general matter, counties will not revisit prior canvassing decisions in the manual recount.” But…

…Any canvassing board at any time in the original count, machine recount, or manual recount may, upon finding that a discrepancy or inconsistency exists, direct a recanvass of any necessary portion of the ballots.

That’s not much more than a restatement of RCW 29A.60.210, but it is an interpretation of the statute that has long guided elections in Washington state.

The other day, in trying to explain the process by which the 723 ballots were left not rejected, but uncounted, I wrote that I hoped “a King County election worker will correct me if I’m wrong.” Well, within 24 hours a memo was released from Superintendent of Elections Bill Huennekens showing that I was indeed wrong on some of the specifics, but right in my general conclusion: these ballots were not marked “rejected” but rather “No Signature on File.”

But more interesting to me was the following tidbit from the memo that has been conveniently ignored by unsound muckrakers:

This spring, I learned that the long-standing operating procedure for absentee voters who did not have a signature in the system was to simply let the ballot count. For the May special election, I instructed staff that this was not acceptable and that the effort must be made to locate the voter’s original registration card, or the image of their signature.

King County Elections has been roundly criticized as sloppy and incompetent — even corrupt — over these 723 signatures, but the only reason we learned about them in the first place was because of efforts to tighten up lax signature matching procedures. Funny thing is, if this election had taken place under the “long-standing operating procedures” of prior years, Gregoire may already have been certified the winner.

Before I cast my vote for a judge, I usually look at the bar association qualification ratings. After all, how am I, a layman, supposed to make an informed decision on a “nonpartisan” race for which the candidates aren’t even allowed to campaign on the issues?

So I was curious to see the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association’s Judicial Qualifications Committee’s most recent ratings for Stephanie Arend, the judge who granted Dino Rossi an injunction to stop counting legal votes in King County:

Lloyd L. Alton, Jr.		Well qualified
Stephanie A. Arend*		Minimally qualified 
Scott A. Candoo   		Well qualified
Clayton R. Dickinson		Qualified
Henry Haas      		Exceptionally well qualified
Christine J. Quinn-Brintnall	Qualified
Douglas W. VanScoy		Well qualified
Karl L. Williams		Well qualified|
Edward S. Winskill		Exceptionally well qualified

That’s right… Judge Arend was only rated “minimally qualified”, the second to lowest rating available. Out of the nine candidates running in 1999, she was deemed to be the least qualified!

A candidate will receive a Minimally Qualified Rating when the candidate meets the minimum statutory requirements for the judicial position sought, is in good standing with the Washington State Bar and other Bar Associations to which the candidate has been admitted and possesses the basic legal ability required for the judicial position but is deficient in one or more of the criteria for a Qualified Rating.

I could not find a more recent judicial rating, probably because she’s run unopposed since then. I assume she’s benefited from some on-the-job training, but I just thought you might like to know what kind of “minimally qualified” legal decision this election might turn on.