[NWPT48]I was planning to post a detailed analysis of the election contest trial in advance of tomorrow’s ruling, but really… why bother? We all know Dino Rossi is going to lose, and we’ll all have plenty of time to hash and rehash the Judge’s written opinion between now and the Supreme Court’s inevitable decision to uphold it. So I just want to focus on a couple of legal points that I believe will play strongly into Judge Bridges’ ruling.
Throughout the proceedings the Republicans have relied heavily on Foulkes v. Hays, a case where an election was tossed out due to altered ballots. I have written extensively on Foulkes (for example, here, here, and here,) so I do not need to readdress it again, except to reiterate that it simply does not apply to this case in the way Rossi’s attorneys wish it would. And even if it did (and Becker v. Pierce County strongly suggests that it does not,) the Republicans have failed to prove that any fraud occurred.
Instead, after offsetting illegal votes and a few hundred mishandled provisional ballots, the Republicans have been forced to settle on their “total mess” theory… that official neglect and other irregularities — mostly in King County — has made the true winner unascertainable. Much of their focus has been on the failure of King and other counties to accurately reconcile the number of ballots cast with the number of voters credited. Republicans argue that King County failed to follow the law in reconciling the election and reporting the results to the canvassing board… and that this alone is reason enough to set aside the election.
But I’m guessing that in addressing this issue, Judge Bridges might cite McCormick v. Okanogan County:
In MURPHY v. SPOKANE, SUPRA at 684, we quoted with approval the statement of the rule found in McCrary on Elections 225:
” “If the statute expressly declares any particular act to be essential to the validity of the election, or that its omission shall render the election void, all courts whose duty it is to enforce such statute, must so hold, whether the particular act in question goes to the merits or affects the result of the election, or not.
Such a statute is imperative, and all considerations touching its policy or impolicy must be addressed to the legislature.
But if, as in most cases, that statute simply provides that certain acts or things shall be done within a particular time or in a particular manner, and does not declare that their performance is essential to the validity of the election, then they will be regarded as mandatory if they do, and directory if they do not, affect the actual merits of the election.”
The point is that even if King County Elections failed to follow the law — a point I am not conceding — these technical violations do not amount to grounds for setting aside the election unless it can be proven that they materially contributed to swaying the results. Since these alleged violations all occurred during reconciliation and voter crediting, they could not have directly impacted the vote count.
What Rossi has asked the court to do is set aside an election due to official error or neglect, even though there is no evidence that these errors actually affected the outcome. If he were to succeed it would set a precedent in which all extremely close elections would end up in court… indeed, most would be set aside because the number of errors will almost always exceed the margin of victory.
As I have stated before, implicit in our election statutes is both an acknowledgment that elections are imperfect, and a pragmatic preference of finality over certainty. The recount statute defines an endgame for close elections, and the contest statute makes overturning the final result extremely difficult. This is not only intentional, it is necessary to assuring a stabile government.
Reading through Judge Bridges’ previous rulings it is clear that he understands the legislative intent. There is nothing clear or convincing about Rossi’s claims. And there is no way the Judge can rule in his favor.
Should be interesting. Love your blog.
I’ll certainly be watching tomorrow.
What is “certain,” at least beyond any statistical doubt, is that King County exhibited a pattern of behavior consistent with a conscious desire to realize every potential vote in precincts that favored Gregroire, while not making nearly the same effort in pro-Rossi precincts.
Upholding the election is tantamount to endorsing the principle that those who vote decide nothing, while those who count the votes decide everything.
Forward:
Dear Friend,
Today is a historic day.
Today, in Wenatchee, Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges will issue a decision in the election contest filed nearly six months ago by the GOP to challenge the election of Christine O. Gregoire as Governor of Washington State.
And one of our loyal NPI staff members – known to all under his nickname of Archerhouse (which is also his Kos username) – will be covering the developments in Wenatchee LIVE all morning. As soon as news comes in, he’ll be updating his diary on Daily Kos with the latest information.
The court is scheduled to reconvene at 9 AM this morning, but Archerhouse will be publishing his diary a little earlier – ten to twenty minutes before. If you can be at a computer at 9 AM this morning, please join Archerhouse on Kos for the historic announcement.
There’s a possibility, given the magnitude of this news story, that the diary might be front-paged by Kos or one of his guest bloggers. If you don’t see the diary on the front page by 9 AM, please recommend the diary so it will at least make it onto the recommended list when the news is announced.
It’s simple:
At about 8:45 AM or so this morning, head to http://www.dailykos.com and look under the recent diaries list to find Archerhouse’s diary.
Check the homepage every so often – say five minutes – to see if it gets promoted there.
If by 9 AM, Archerhouse’s diary isn’t on the front page, go ahead and click the “recommend this diary” button to get it on the recommended list as court is reconvening.
Be sure to follow along as events unfold. Archerhouse will provide instant updates.
Once again, thanks for your support of NPI and Pacific Northwest Portal.
– Andrew Villeneuve, Chair, Northwest Progressive Institute
Not that I pretend to be a legal expert like Don & others (so pretend), but my gut tells me that Bridges will most likely smack King County around a bit and then will state that despite his personal opinion on the case, the law doesn’t allow him to throw out THIS election. He might even follow with a warning that future elections could lead to bigger court battles now that the parties have had their “dress rehearsal” and that the people (i.e. the Legislature) would do well to tighten up the elections laws.
No matter how he rules, I think that Judge Bridges should make a strong recomendation that King County and the State of Washington fix the system so this never happens again. I am a fan of Instant Runoff Voting, and it did pass Olympia, but only as a pilot project, in a few counties, and only if the counties chose to adopt it, for Non-Partisan Elections. The problem is, Partisan Elections are the ones that need it. If we had IRV, we would not be having this election contest.
Not that I pretend to be a legal expert like Don & others (so pretend), but my gut tells me that Bridges will most likely smack King County around a bit and then will state that despite his personal opinion on the case, the law doesn’t allow him to throw out THIS election.
Yes, I agree. Except he will make comments about the other counties as well. Everyone seems to agree on this, even Stefan and his bloggers are getting ready for a ruling against Rossi, there is a thread everywhere of resignation.
Then prepare for the faux outrage from the SP folk:
1) Everyone knows Rossi won, Gregoire won by a technicality.
2) KC messed it up so bad, they got out on a technicality.
3) The judge wore an earring, I knew was a liberal after all.
4) The polls saw people want a re-vote, why can’t we have one?
Erik–
You are a one-man “LEFTIST PINHEAD” spin machine.
Unfortunately for you, you will be on perpetual spin cycle trying to convince the masses in Washington State that the should “feel good” about the conduct of this election….and about the result.
You are a “dizzy” SOB…and there isn’t enough dramamine available to stabilize your condition.
Whatever the outcome…your spin efforts will be unsuccessful because they defy “common sense”.
You have already lost the PR battle Erik. The best you can hope for is the repeal of the Gas Tax lead by a bi-partisan effort.
erik
got any more ads to run?
btway, you embarrased to call yourself a liberal? progressive sounds so much nicer?
You libs would love nothing more than to both win the court battle (election) and also codify current voting procedures. Let me summarize
a) Requiring IDs dissuades the underclass from voting
b) REquiring end of day balancing the books per precinct makes older social security types frazzled, unfair
c) We should let anyone who wants to vote, go ahead and vote, (and we’ll check their ids later (ha, that’s a lie)
d) Retireees in Ariz or military types get ballots late and get no special favors
e) If the vote “appears” through our crystal ball to be a Dem ballot, we’ll magic marker in the change
f) Accuvote? Hey best thing going for us
g) Absentee ballots: don’t number or make it easy to count…trust our poll workers to honestly take them home
h) Dean Logan; runs the best election in the country
(i meant to go serious on this, the point really being you all do want lose elections; it favors the homeless, inner city black, hispanics (often non-citizens).
This is the day.
May justice be done.
Judge Bridges send these pinheaded leftist commies packing.
This could be the trigger event for the
“First Annual Despondent Leftist Lemming Jump Off the Space Needle Day”
Vote Fraud wackos yelling “Come on, everybody’s doing it.”
“Join in the fun.”
righton, zapporo, cynical – have you considered that Gregoire’s doing a lot of good? It sounds like the election problems were similar in several counties – what is it that Rossi would have done that you want done?
It can be a powerful thing to stick to your game plan–no matter what. But it seems to me that the whole Republican thing is beginning to unravel both locally and nationally. When it gets several points behind 40% popularity rating and this lasts for a while, I fully expect another terrorist attack from the comic- book menace of the “axis of evil” to assist our current administration in their mission of being uniters, not dividers. It would never occur to them that that game won’t work two times in a row. To gauge what people really think about this war, just look at the shortfall in military enrollments. It’s bad to be poor but it’s worse to be dead–especially for a product like oil that you don’t get to share the wealth, you just get to be price-gouged by people like our president and vice-president.
Although Rossi has had a lot of wind in his mouth, he is about discover he needed more wind in his sails instead. HAIL to headless lucy. you hit the nail on the head.
Chee is a Navajo surname—and a very good one at that.
I suggest you Kumbaya-ers take a close hard look at what just happened in Europe – the grand Soci*list plan to take over the continent FAILED. Granted, the Euro’s are left of center but even they were CONSERVATIVE enough to overwhelmingly shut down the loony lefties.
Conservatism is alive, well and thriving in this state, in this country, across several continents and most of the world. Liberalism and soci*alism has failed – you just refuse to acknowledge the corpse.
Ben@12. I agree with you. I think Gregoire is a great leader and regardless of what transpires today, Gregoire will be one of the finest Governor’s the State of Washington has ever seated. I think she will remain Governor, and I think she will win a second term by a landslide. If she doesn’t remain Goveror, I think she will still win a another second term by a landslide. And, for better or for worse, I believe we will never know what kind of Governor Dino would have been – I don’t think Rossi will ever be Governor of Washington State. He has diminished himself to such a degree I can’t picture him in any leadership roles whatever. Marilyn
Her polling numbers <30%> are in the dumper.
Close to 60% beleive we need a new election
+70% of the voters think her taking office is a sham.
The Chrissy puppets in the legislature steamrolled over the will of the populace and their constituents.
You’re living in a dream world.
Even if she wins today, and she just might, ultimately she loses big time as do the Dems, starting with Cantwell.
You discount the anger of the voters.
Should have been: Her polling numbers <30% are in the dumper.
What’s looney about wanting a decent life for everyone–even you?
No! YOU discount the anger of the voters and where it’s turning to.
Well that’s the difference lucy – you think having a decent life will come from Chrissy and the government.
I know having a decent life comes froms government getting the hell out of the way.
I can only guess that the war on some liberalism, like the war on some drugs, and the war on some terrorism and the war on some elections, all boils down to that great amerikan tradition of who’s number one–winners and losers?? This blog is beginning to look like a parking lot after some big game between to rivals, and the fights are just beginning to break out in the parking lot over this or that illegal action, and this or that replay, and this or that official’s ruling–it is never about the game, just the individual emotional connection with winning and losing. There are no winners in this one at all. It is a huge lose/lose; the bitterness and acrimony, as evidenced by some of the most bilious and vitrolic spewing over the last few days, will last much longer.
When someone can say something like: “Liberalism and soci*alism has failed–…” claiming a victory for some brand of conservatism, they can only be representing their high school’s number one status as the best fascism, in its ugliest and most vile form. Indeed we are all going to be losers from this one.
So tell us spydie – give us one little example of a grand success story of liberalism and soci*lism.
Just one.
We’ll be waiting.
GM, GR @ various
link, please, on your survey figures. They do not appear accurate to me.
I’ll give you three success stories of socialism:
Social Security
Central banking (ie, the Fed)
Child labor laws
YOOHOO spydie….
No liberalism/soci*lism success stories tripping right off your pudgy little fingertips??
Tap, tap, tap…”we’re all waiting for you Frosty”.
You know nothing of the sort. Government and business have been hand and glove since before the pyramids. The trick is to get the government to listen to the guys who are actually building the pyramids. You are one of the guys building the pyramid. But you’re so thick-witted you can’t see it.
Speaking of voter anger, the latest polls show Bush’s approval rating at 38% and voters turning to Democrats in the 2006 congressional elections by a 47% to 40% margin. If this holds up, Repubs could lose control of the House next year.
If that trend continues,Priscilla, I predict another terrorist attack.
Not So Good Morning @ 22. ” Well that’s the difference lucy – you think having a decent life will come from Chrissy and the government. I know having a decent life comes froms (from) government getting the hell out of the way.”
Nonsense! That is extreme. Since when have people been capable of governing themself! No rule offers nothing but hari-kari and harum-scarum. Having a decent life comes from people and to people who practice and exercise the art of decency; no more or no less.
The mainstream media has given a short shift to the GOP’s King County Convention, where the ballot counting was apparently run by the King County Elections Department (just kidding).As convered by Goldy, the R