The headline says it all.
Presumably, this lawsuit focuses on the absentee and provisional ballots for which the Dems have collected affidavits proving signature matches. I guess winning is more important than discerning the will of the voters.
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Escuse me, but enough sarcasm. Winning comes about by the will of legal votes, not the will of anybody. Voting rules are enacted to ensure accountability – you have to be a legal resident, you can only vote once, and you can’t vote for someone else. People who submitted unsigned (or illegibly signed, or signed in a manner other than their legal signature) absentee or provisional ballots who didn’t follow the rules, and not counting their votes is no more of disenfranchisement as it is to not count those who were to lazy to register or go to the polls.
As I understand it, the Rs suit concerns whether state law allows a single person to submit a boxful of votes by proxy. Since provisional ballots didn’t exist when the law was written, it is by no means certain that a law that allows me to designate a proxy to submit my vote also allows a party to collect signatures from people who have already failed to follow the rules for legal voting and submit them en masse by proxy. To do so envites vote fraud on a mass level, and so I would hope the courts will not interpret the law to allow it. But they may. It is not frivolous to file the suit and allow the courts to do what they are supposed to do.
Speaking as someone who once entertained the employees of a Dutch bank for half an hour, as the passed around my travellers checks, each of which had a slightly different signature, I do not feel that poor penmenship should disqualify one from voting.
And… there is never enough sarcasm.
I’ll accept that, and lord knows my signature is illegible. However, an illegible signature still has to match the illigible signature on file when the voter registered – if you relax that rule then there is no protection against fraud.
It is nothing more than voter ID and turout- couple more the oldest and most important pieces of any election- and more important when the votes get close. Republicans had the same option in the cow counties going back almost two weeks. Didn’t do it. Too bad.
Here’s my 2 cents: I support the GOP lawsuit SOLELY because the GOP is hauling in voters to the auditors’ offices while the Dems are not. The GOP want absolute proof-of-ID for the auditor’s staff (and BTW: the CEO of the auditors’ departments are elected positions in most counties) to make the call and I hope they don’t look at the snout. Or as I like to say in Latin: Res Ipsa Loquitur (The thing speaks for itself).
This lawsuit I support. I would have supported the Dem litigation HAD they went to the GOP in good faith and done so together. That list was incredibly 1-sided and I will say in defense of King County Elections that I believe they had the best of intentions versus other (read Rossi) counties that released these names.
Also, in another development, SKAGIT County has mysteriously appearing ballots. Don’t blame me – I think what happened is that mysterious things happen… Don’t ask but if you must:
It’s just life in Skagit County where we have a ton of water in Hamilton but downtown Mount Vernon is spared by the Nookachamps in the big 2003 flood – read http://www.skagitvalleyherald......news02.txt.
It’s just life in Skagit County where we aren’t that open to change – we rejected a plan for a King County-style means of governance (county charter) in 2003.
It’s just life in Skagit County where around 60 studies have been made of how the Skagit River floods.
Go figure.
Josef, this is Rudolph. The idea of getting your voters out to vote is the best of the party system, and surely when a race is hotly contested. The Dems did not care what the Rs did ir didn’t, just that the ballots be counted. Remember King County was 1 out of 20. Something wrong in New boy Deans uptight assesment of the lay of the land. And in a post Floida world, whew, stupid or just rally stupid. Why the difference, 1 out of 20? HMr Dean Logan, nice smile- bad haircut, is not elected. Those other 19 auditors in the cow counties are elected, by real people who come to the courthuse for their tabs, and marriage permits, and so forth. Harder to cut the legs off a ballot when it is connected to a face in your town who votes and sells you insurance and tractors to your brother farmer.
Also- suspect bad advice from the King County prosecuter office which gives legals to this Dean the Mean fellow. Norm Maleing is a old R who is very election savy. Of course the media has not aked where the bd advice about counting ballots came from, but I will spend a lot of my political currency to guess is was Maling and Mr. Sec of State- old time Rs who would have lo problem throwing out several thousnd radical ballots in a hot race. Lots of cover for them and they keep their jobs.
King County need an elected ballot chief- should not be hard after this week.
Good for the GOP. Let’s not forget that liberal King Co. Judge that wanted all those provisional ballots re-looked at and the people contacted for verification, which is against Federal law. Shame on him.