How important are provisional ballots in determining the outcome of the governor’s race? The WA State Democratic Party is planning to sue the King County Elections Department to gain access to the list of voters whose ballots have been ruled invalid.
In response, state GOP chairman Chris Vance made one of his usual ill considered stupid comments:
“I’m now becoming very worried that the Democrats are going to try to turn this into Florida,”
I can’t blame Republicans for trying to run out the clock, but this habit of ridiculing Democrats for wanting to count every vote shows just how little the R’s respect the electorate. Turn this into another Florida? How fucking arrogant can you get? If votes are left uncounted, then this is another Florida.
Apparently, Republicans only respect the will of the voters when it agrees with them.
This statement by the Republicans seems strange to me. I heard on the news that there are 800+ absentee ballots that were not signed on the outside of the envelope by the voter. These ballots are boxed up and both parties have until Tuesday to try and contact the voters on their side and get their signatures so their vote will be counted–the Republicans are burning up the telephone lines as we blog.
A lot of Chris Vance’s comments are strange. Remember, back in 2003, he made a big show of being the first signature on a petition for Eyman’s ill-fated I-807. That’s enough in itself to heap ridicule on the guy.
(And ironically, it turns out that the petition he signed had the text of the initiative printed improperly, so it would have been invalid if submitted.)
Well, even his own party hates him. Go to http://www.thereaganwing.com and enjoy their feast on themselves.
That said, common sense would dictate that they’d stick together to help Dino if & when he needed help.
Josef
Look, no one likes Chris Vance. Seriously, no one. But it’s not like Chris Vance is the one being sued. No, it’s the King County Elections board. Who do you think runs that, Republicans? Sheesh, speaking of “feasting on themselves.”
Vance is just calling it like it is–a desperate attempt that won’t make any difference. Just like in Florida, the Dems are targeting a county that is favorable to them, and ignoring the rest.
Well, if you followed the link, you’d understand that the reasons the Dems are not suing the other counties is that most of them are releasing the information about the provisional ballots that have been ruled invalid, whereas King has not.
“Most,” but barely. Only 20 out of 39 Washington counties are releasing that information. If the Dems want King to release that information, they should be demanding it from the other 18 counties too.
Fine, Timothy. But the story didn’t say the Dems weren’t going to sue the other counties. The focus is on King, because that’s where the most ballots are. And if the GOP thinks it’s losing votes in other counties, then perhaps they should spend the money to sue.
Just like Florida…
In Florida, the Dems sued to pursue the count, and the GOP sued to block it. If it turns into Florida, it is going to be on Chris Vance’s head.
Just to be clear, the statement in your blog “but this habit of ridiculing Democrats for wanting to count every vote” is inaccurate. According to Ryan Bianchi of the Gregoire campaign, when going door to door to verify the provisional ballots they ask if the person is a Gregoire voter. If the voter is not a Gregoire voter then so long, no help for you. Apparently only democratic votes are worth counting.
The GOP has access to the same list, and are free to do the exact same thing. In fact, they are doing the exact same thing.
Then let’s just call this is what it is…
It’s fishing for votes (Please don’t insult me with let’s count EVERY vote crap)
Why is counting every vote crap? People cast their ballots, and both parties should be working as hard as they can to assure that their voters get their votes cast. Just like they both worked hard to get their voters to the polls.
What? Rossi’s in the lead, so we should just stop counting?
Counting every vote isn’t crap. Using the “count every vote” pretense to specifically get more gregoire votes is crap. Come on, the head of the DNC was on the news literally in tears about how strongly he feels about how EVERY vote should count. Well good for him, let’s see this in action by not discriminting against wheather the voter is rep or dem.
Hmmm… now that the hand count shows that Gregoire won, is Mr Vance going to "flip-flop" and start chanting that we count every vote? Even the ones they were previously suing to not count? Yes, of course, he’s a republican.
Chris Vance is parading around like a big whining pout. He and Dino are doing plenty to discredit themselves in the eyes of Washington voters. I’d say, if you want to play, pay. Pay for the revote Chrissy, Dino and whoever else from the Republican pity potty party wants to pitch in. Personally, I do not want my tax dollars to go toward a revote because the Republicans do not like the outcome of a very close race. Waaaaaa!
Milo Madder=Olympia
What with Bush’s announcement today that over 300 White House Republicans are belatedly being required to take a crash course on ETHICS, now is the time for that sleazy, sneaky, lying son-of-a-bitch Chris Vance to join them!