As was previously noted, Saturday’s triumph of Steve Hammond over political momma’s boy Raymond Shaw Reagan Dunn was not only surprising, it was downright hilarious. Vying for the party’s nomination in the King County Council’s 9th District, Hammond eked out a narrow 25-vote victory out of the 444 ballots cast at the GOP’s county convention. The funny part is, that there were only 436 delegates seated. That’s right… there were more ballots cast than delegates who voted!
Let’s see now… 8 divided by 436… that’s a discrepancy rate of 1.83 percent. If the Republicans had staffed KC Elections, and had achieved the same startling accuracy rate, we would have seen a discrepancy of about 16,500 more ballots than voters. And on Saturday they only had to deal with 436 delegates (…or maybe it was 444) instead of the 900,000 KC voters who participated in the November election.
And the problems didn’t stop there. According to Republican Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer and others, the entire convention was chaotic.
Von Reichbauer wants the convention process reviewed, because the date conflicted with school graduations, delegates couldn’t vote by absentee ballot and soldiers fighting overseas couldn’t participate.
So the Republicans couldn’t reconcile the vote, and they disenfranchised military voters!
“It was an inconvenient process,” von Reichbauer said. But then, “inconveniencing” voters has been a mainstay of Republican voter suppression strategies for decades… so I’m sorry if I’m wary about Republican proposals for electoral reform.
So much for party unity
Before the May 18 caucuses and in the weeks that followed, both Hammond and Shaw Dunn indicated that they would abide by the convention’s outcome, and not run in the September primary if they didn’t win the GOP’s official nomination.
But after yesterday’s vote, Dunn said he would file anyway, although he didn’t know whether he would do so as a Republican.
“I can’t abandon this campaign because of 24 votes in June,” he said, referring to Hammond’s victory margin (and getting his math slightly wrong).
How convenient. But then, the GOP is not only the party of convenience, it is also the party of poor losers.
Yeah sore losers like Al Gore and John Kerry… oh wait they aren’t Republicans.
Checking up on Stefan this AM, I notice he’s been trying to guess who the 96 unopened KC ballots belong to, then informing those folks their votes weren’t counted (even tho he can’t verify the info).
This is like ringing doorbells and telling strangers their child has been killed in an accident. Ooops, wrong house, sorry for the mistake.
I was wondering when the repuglitrolls were going to get out of bed this morning.
Goldy, you should give Stefan shit about this. I’m serious. He’s way out of line.
Wow, slow day goldy. Lets see, political party has counting discrepancies and that’s revealed like the same day.
Elected government makes mistakes and takes the full power of the press and subpoenas to find the same.
Not exactly the same situation, or result, is it?
Yes, it IS exactly the same situation/result, Mush Brains. It’s newsworthy because … well, because … the Republicans are HYPOCRITES! (Actually, that’s not news.)
Let’s see … what else … oh yes, Dunn LIED when he said he wouldn’t run if he lost. Hmmm where have we seen this before … oh that’s right … George “Term Limits” Nethercutt LIED when he said he wouldn’t run again.
Well, at least now the Republicans are only lying to each other, that’s a refreshing change.
wipeoff re:#5—-You’re twisting the truth again. A child could see through your pretense. No thanks Mr. Wipeoff, I don’t want a ride or a piece of candy today!
It amazes me that the GOP and Dunn have not already filed suit after Steve Fraudmond has obviously committed such overwhelming fraud to win his parties endorsement. And now that I know that military voters were disenfranchised, I am almost left wordless.
At least we can look forward to the minnow coming up with reems of spreadsheets showing us all the mistakes in these GOP run elections, right?
Reply to 8
No, Stefan’s too busy sowing anger and angst, see #2 above.
So by your logic a re-vote is not warranted when the number of illegal votes exceeds the margin of victory 13 TIMES OVER. BUT a re-vote is warranted when the apparent discrepancy is well within the margin of victory.
Guess it’s better to ignore that little $300k+ in fines over two years despite REPEATED warnings and instead bash the other side. Wonder if the donors who’s $ went to pay the fine agree?
#10; the donors have no choice; they are teachers and other union members basically owned by the Dems and paying mandatory dues.
I suspect it was some of the “guests”, you know those lying libs that let themselves into our Convention (as opposed to the hide-behind-closed-doors thingie the Dems are doing this month… Tuesday, June 28th at 7:00pm in the Gymnasium of Bellevue Community College… COME ON OVER CONSERVATIVES, LET’S CHALLENGE THEIR DEMOCRACY, THEIR HONESTY AND LET’S DEMAND AN OPEN FORUM!)that screwed with the voting.
Say it aint so Goldy. Is that greedy right winger going to raise more $ than you for charity? You could beat him, afterall you just got back from Camp so you must be in excellent shape. Challenge him and beat him!!! You could get a six-pack and climb Mt Freakmont.
We’ll consider it a revote with $ and nobody will care if you stuff the ballot box with as many votes (dollars) as you like.
http://www.kvi.com/x2977.xml?P.....wsSection=
“The only way to beat a knave is with more knavery.” Dick Cavett to Sir John “Cucumber” Jones, 1965.
Righties:We won. Think about it…and we’re just getting started.
Note to you little service industry type libs – PLEASE when you are scheduled to come to my house go PEE before you arrive to work in my yard, to fix my furnace, to install my whatever.
I find it disgusting to have to clean up after total strangers not one of whom has ever yet been known to actually hit the bowl. I fully expect you to pee all over yourselves and if you don’t mind it on your floors, go for it, BUT I DO GREATLY MIND, especially when I’M PAYING YOU.
It’s rude.
It’s unprofessional.
It’s disgusting.
Clearly you all need a bit more home training.
I can’t believe Chris Vance certified this train-wreck of an election when such obvious fraud occurred. Dunn should mount a PR campaign filled with righteous indignation, and wild allegation. My calculations show GOP PCO felons clearly put Fraudmond over the top. Dunn should appeal this all the way to the supreme court.
All this time, I thought the Republican Party members in this state were people who are bad at math voting for felons. Thanks to the events of the last two weeks, it appears to it may be the other way around.
I’ve heard enough! CALL IN THE FEDS!!!!!!
How can you people be talking about this stupid stuff when Michael Jackson was found innocent?????
Where are your priorities????
….whoops, thought I was a network news anchor. Sorry, everybody.
Yep … the jury system works … it also helps your case to be a celebrity … and be able to pay defense lawyers millions.
So if Jackson is innocent, why did he agree to pay a civil settlement of $20 million to one of his accusers and the boy’s family?
Excellent point, Tooth Fairy…
I’m just so disgusted with the media and their obsession with this story. There might not be a lot of agreement on what else to report on, but I think we all can agree they should be reporting something else.
This Dunn/Hammond thing will have way more effect on me than Michael Jackson, but who else is talking about this?
Back on point, Goldy, when you’re right, you’re right. This whole episode shows how screwed up the party is, not just in the County, but the whole state. Republicans can get elected both in King County and statewide; but you have to have a decent party machine to do it. We don’t.
I heard there were 12 more votes than voters in that race. Not good, but guess what—if you subtract ALL of them from Hammond’s total, he still clearly wins!!
Can Gregoire say that about the 785 absentee ballots in KC that belong to NO ONE? NOOOoooooo. THAT’S a problem, boys! No wonder almost 60% of Washingtonians believe that Dino won.
Even so, PLEEEEASE don’t kick Gregoire to the curb in ’08. Keep her in there as the Dem nominee. We’d be oh so happy if ya’ did.
Reply to 22
How about reporting on the Downing Street Memo? The smoking gun, the impeachable offense … nope, that’s not news.
Reply to 23
“THAT’S a problem, boys!”
No — it’s not. We had three counts plus a 2-week trial. Dino had his day in court. He lost. Get over it. Move on.
re: 1
They withdrew gracefully….really wonders what the right thinks of as “sore losers”….
Reply to 24
How ’bout the rest of the Prime Minister’s briefing memos? They’re online (pdf’s of the originals):
http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=1078
Goldy – So NOW you think having more votes than voters is a problem?? Welcome aboard!! Too bad you just happened to “see the light” about a week too late.
Also, In the Repub. election, the overvote is less than the margin of victory. Unlike in the Gov race where it was more than 10x the margin of victory. Get a clue!!
Mark D
Mark D @ 28
“so NOW you think having more votes than voters is a problem??”
Except that there were not “more votes than voters” in the 2004 general election. You must have missed the numerous times during the legal process where voter crediting was shown to be irrelevant to reconciliation, and, at best, an approximate way to find the number of voters. Mr. Handy from the SoS office, for example pointed out that there are numerous ways that the two numbers cannot be expected to reconcile.
“Unlike in the Gov race where it was more than 10x the margin of victory.”
Indeed, but the illegal votes provided a net benefit to Rossi, as we found out during the trial. The big difference is relative magnitude of the two processes.
The republicans can’t admit their logic was flawed…and their own incomopetence highlights the situation to magnificent levels.
Perhaps Dunn should appeal to Vance — but wait, based on his politics, it wouldn’t be fair…
dj, are you kidding?? Where do you get your news and legal analysis? Moveon.org???
The judge even removed 1,600 plus votes from the overall count and the margin of “victory” was 133. Although not overvotes in that case, it’s still fact. Also, I would be just as outraged if Rossi won in this way. It’s not about who won. It’s about having a fair election.
I know most people in Florida thank god their state isnt overun by a bunch of corrupt donks. If there were a recount in Florida you know the dems would have pulled out their “bag-o-ballets” to change the outcome but fortunately justice and wisdom prevailed. The count in 2004 was more realistic and closer to what 2000 should have been. Remember that Florida was called early for Gore in 2000 which disenfranchised a lot of Republican voters in the pan handle of Florida. If the election was not called early Florida would not have been close and Bush would have more than likely won the popular vote in 2000.
Mark D @ 31
“The judge even removed 1,600 plus votes from the overall count and the margin of “victory” was 133. Although not overvotes in that case, it’s still fact. Also, I would be just as outraged if Rossi won in this way. It’s not about who won. It’s about having a fair election.”
Sorry, I am not following what you are getting at. The gain of 4 votes resulted from deducting 4 felon voters who voted for Rossi (as proven with clear and convincing evidence).
The point I am making is that when Mark Handcock used the GOP-proposed proportional analysis using the list of illegal votes that Judge Bridges accepted (this is very close to that “Scenario B” he gave during the trial), Gregoire loses a few votes. Then, if you account for the sex composition of felons (as was shown during the trial), Gregoire gained, on average, a few additional votes.
In other words, Gregoire still got the most legal votes after removing the 1600+ known illegal votes; and Rossi probably got more votes among those 1600 illegal votes than Gregoire did.
So, if there was anything unfair in this election, it is that Rossi got the majority of illegal votes.
RUFUS @ 32
You are an asshole.
BTW: if the Supreme Court had not stopped the recount, there are some scenarios under which Gore would have won, but under the most likely scenarios, Bush would have won. It is too bad we didn’t get to learn who the people really elected in Florida in 2000.
How do you figure that… there were two recounts here and 56% of the people believe that Rossi won. It doesnt matter how many times you recount an election.. you are not gonna get any closer to who won then the first count.
RUFUS @ 35
I apologize for calling you an asshole. I see that you are, instead, a complete fucking idiot.
If you don’t understand how recounts work, please go educate yourself before spewing complete nonsense. The recounts (which, I might add, are allowed by and limited by law) increase the accuracy of an election. If you don’t get why, stop being willfully ignorant and read-up on the process.
dj, don’t argue with Rufus. It’s useless. He’s a complete fucking idiot.
For example, he claims that “If the election was not called early Florida would not have been close and Bush would have more than likely won the popular vote in 2000.” Yeah sure, Tin Hat Boy. Gore won the popular vote by 550,000, Bush won Florida by 527, so you’d need to dig up another half million GOP votes in the panhandle. Dude, you’re full of shit.
Gregoire’s margin of victory was 133 times what the law requires — end of story.
OK I concede.. there is no way Bush would have picked up 550,000 votes if the election wasnt called early in 2000. He probably would have picked up 125,000 to 150,000. I overstated what I said before. It would have been enough to put
Florida strongly in the Bush camp though… take it to the bank…
RUFUS DUFUS @ 39
Hey, can I play your “let’s make up stupid shit” game?
Here’s one. “FACT”: If the GOP hadn’t seeded the clouds to make it rain in Ohio on election day in 2004, Kerry would have taken Ohio by about 6,500 votes.
This is fun!
Reagan Dunn’s #1 blogger fan says: RE-VOTE! RE-VOTE! RE-VOTE!
Why?
Oh, gosh WHY NOT?
I believe very strongly that Sith lords had a hand in Saturday’s catastrophe.
But gosh, isn’t Ron Sims a Sith lord?
(Figuring the way some of you are, maybe you’ll bite then.)
dj ; how come the word “count” means something different to you guys. (count and insert)
Thomas Trainwinder @ 26
Were you asleep during fall of 2000? Gore was a whining little two year old.
righton @ 43
“How come the word “count” means something different to you guys. (count and insert)”
I am not sure what you are getting at here. In what way do you think count is used differently by “us guys” (whoever “us guys” are–liberals? statisticians?)?
When i count the change in my dresser drawer, i can do it 2 ways
a) count that drawerfull 3 times, hoping last count matches earlier, gets it right, so that when i go to the bank I’m confidant of what i have
or
b) i could count the dresser, then also find some in a pair of pants, on the floor etc.
I think you guys like the latter analogy; we like the former
righton @ 46
That is a pretty tortured analogy that doesn’t really resemble the ballot counting process, dude. I suspect you guys like the former when it is to your advantage. But, the only important thing is what the law has to say about it. If you don’t like the laws, work to change ’em.
Tooth Fairy: What part of the electoral system of you fail to understand? Are you edumicated in the Hilary Clinton school of electoral processes? Didn’t she say get rid of the Electoral College in 2000? It’s not who gets the most votes, but who wins the Electoral College.
Tooth Fairy: If Al Gore won Tennesee, he’d be president. SO why didn’t he win his home state? Hmmm…? Did they know sumtin about the Gory one that kept him from being elected. No one on HA wants to answer that because it exposes your silly arguments about Florida. If he won his own state, the state where daddy voted against Senate lynching legislation (didn’t most democrapic senators?) he’d be da president of the United States?
Pudster
I’m glad you mentioned lynching legislation, #48. The legislation that passed last night (by voice vote – certain people didn’t want to be on the record for this one) was co-sponsored by nearly every member of the Senate, except the following:
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Michael Crapo (R-ID)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
George Voinovich (R-OH)
I’m a Democrat, and I’m proud my party has finally gotten it right on civil rights. Will the party of Lincoln stand with us?
My apologies, I mistakenly included Kent Conrad on the list. He did indeed co-sponsor the bill. The Wall of Shame is a purely GOP club.
I love the selective commentary. HAs want to use Florida another day, so again the ignorance over Tennessee. Each time you lefties bring up Florida, I’ll remind you all again over and over of Tennessee.
TJ: I am glad the Democraps got it right after how many years?
Pudster
I am glad the Democraps got it right after how many years?
Far too many. Will the GOP stand with us?
Will the GOP stand with us?
Evidently not.
If anyone reads any posts from that dispicable, lying, piece of shit Pudster “Wounded Knee” tell him I’ve responded to his post on the Shiavo Autopsy thread @ 269.
Thanks,
GBS
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