Court rules against new election in Washington
Mac Diva
Republicans in Washington had hoped the judicial system would help them achieve their hearts' desire -- a new gubernatorial election. Those hopes were dashed Friday. The judge who is hearing a lawsuit seeking to set aside the Nov. 2 election results said that a revote is not a remedy recognized in state jurisprudence.
KGW-TV reports.
WENATCHEE, Wash. - A judge ruled Friday that even if Republicans win their court challenge of Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire's election, he cannot legally order a revote.
"The court doesn't have that authority," Chelan County Superior Court Judge John E. Bridges told a packed courtroom in this Eastern Washington city.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi and the state GOP challenged Gregoire's election, saying the extremely close results were tainted by so many errors and illegal votes that the courts should throw out the results and order a new election. They sued Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, and the state's counties.
As interveners in the case, Democrats have defended the election results, saying Rossi doesn't have enough proof to nullify the election and that a revote would be unconstitutional.
Judge Bridges has sought to simplify the case. He has dismissed the 39 counties and their auditors as defendants. The Secretary of State, in his official capacity, is now the focus of the court. The decision to concentrate on that office suggests the judge will be examining whether Reed complied with the rules governing elections. If there was no official malfeasance, it is likely the challenge to the outcome of the election will be rejected. It is unclear how Judge Bridges will reconcile his focus with state law requiring evidence of fraud to set aside an election.
The Democrats, interveners, had requested that the case be expedited -- sent directly to the state Supreme Court. Judge Bridges rejected that motion. But, the case is apt to be decided by the high court on appeal. In previous trips to the Supreme Court regarding the election, the Democrats have usually prevailed. Indeed, some of the votes the GOP is concerned about were counted after the high court ruled that ballots mistakenly omitted in King County could be added, since the county's tally had not yet been certified. Rejecting those ballots would require that the Supreme Court reverse itself.
The result of Friday's ruling is continued uncertainty, but less of it. The recently elected governor's 129-vote victory remains undisturbed for now.
Reasonably related
• A man has been arrested and charged with threatening to kill Gov. Gregoire and her children. Read about it.
• Though claims of dead people voting are a staple of those criticizing the outcome of the election, the evidence does not support a fraudulent scheme by either party or election officials. Eight cases examined by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer revealed several in which spouses voted for deceased husbands or wives. One wife apparently voted her dead husband's absentee ballot instead of her own.
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10:54 a.m.
Feb 6, '05
Nice recap, Mac. If I may, I did a relatively "live" running analysis of the hearings as they went on Friday, at: http://alsoalso.typepad.com/also_also/2005/02/newsbreak_chela.html
and then followed up on some of the confusion over what the judge precisely said, the following day in the Seattle Times: http://alsoalso.typepad.com/also_also/2005/02/the_shifting_sa.html
and hope to have a joint piece up with fellow Oregon blogger Preemptive Karma early this week, looking to see whether King's problems are really all that outsized.
Thanks!
12:11 a.m.
Feb 7, '05
Sounds like the WA courts went all Bush v. Gore upside Rossi. I gotta admire their sense of humor.
Feb 7, '05
Exactly, Torrid. I'm being reticent because the accounts I've read of what happened in court are ambiguous and conflicting. I really want to read the transcript myself. Among the few certainties are the denial of change of venue and the statement that a revote is not a remedy under Washington law.
I am particularly curious to see how the provisional ballot controversy plays out. Republican observers say a group of hundreds of provisional ballots were counted without being verified in King County. Is that evidence by stipulation or is there independent proof? If it happened, was it reported at the time? Is the remedy they apparently want, not counting the ballots, allowed? Wouldn't it deprive provisional voters (about 90 percent of whom are legit in Washington, according to what I've read) of equal protection? I gather that the ballots cannot be identified anyway, so what other, more reasonable, remedy, is there?
I've been looking at the so-called proof of fraud that a certain wingnut blogger has used to build a following over the last month and . . . it is laughable. I know that many bloggers could not care less about accuracy as long they get attention, but Sharkansky's silly behavior is an embarrassment to himself and others. A handful of votes by surviving spouses, (for both candidates, though that gets ignored) transformed into grave robbing. A glance at mailing schedules for the military at the USPS converted into a plot to mail ballots late to service people. (Actually, a private company mailed the ballots.) A claim that people who mistakenly copied the 'mailed from' address on the ballot material as their home address are manufactured voters. Etc. MEGO!
Post a link when your entry is up.
12:36 a.m.
Feb 8, '05
Thanks, Mac. Two items today:
http://alsoalso.typepad.com/also_also/2005/02/fisking_sharkan.html
That's part one of the collaboration with Preemptive Karma. It looks at Sharkansky's attempt to reconcile King's data, and subsequent declaration that they are hiding much greater discrepancies.
and this http://alsoalso.typepad.com/also_also/2005/02/rossi_on_second.html
is a brief recap of Rossi's presser today, highlighted by him claiming he'd take the goobernor's job long enough to call for a revote, then--minutes after leaving the podium--return and explain how he wouldn't take the job at all, since, y'know, he'd already said he wouldn't.
:)