King County (Seattle) faces election lawsuit

[baby_bear]

Democrats object to ballot handling in governor's race

By ANGELA GALLOWAY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/199370_governor12.html

The state Democratic Party plans to sue the King County Elections Department today over its handling of special ballots in the neck-and-neck race for governor, party officials said last night. The action is the latest effort by backers of Republican Dino Rossi and Democrat Christine Gregoire to squeeze out any possible vote, with Rossi holding onto a razor-thin lead for the past three days.

Yesterday, Rossi held on to his lead of a fraction of 1 percent among more than 2.7 million ballots counted. After Pierce and Whitman counties released tallies of several thousand additional ballots yesterday, Rossi had a lead of about 3,600 votes. Officials estimate that fewer than 85,000 ballots remain to be counted, mostly provisional ballots. It's likely this relatively small segment of ballots will decide the governor's race.
...

Officials in King County, where Gregoire holds a strong lead, will not release to Democrats the names of voters whose provisional ballots have been deemed invalid, usually because county officials determined their ballot signatures did not match those on file or they weren't registered. King County officials say federal election law prohibits releasing that information to anyone but the voter. However, other counties are releasing that information, political party officials said. And the parties are pursuing those disqualified voters, urging them to appeal the ballot rejection with their counties.
</snip>

Catch this quote:
"I'm now becoming very worried that the Democrats are going to try to turn this into Florida," said Chris Vance, chairman of the state Republican Party. "They're losing, and now they're grasping at straws."

If I am not mistaken, it was the Republicans who first filed suit in Florida over the 2000 count. Can someone provide a source for this information? I'd like to write a letter to the editor disputing Vance's statement. What a jerk.

Anyway, this is very important. King County-area Dems, check out this link regarding what we can do to help this weekend:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=184x1951

s_m

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. You are not mistaken. It ain't called Bush v. Gore for nothing. eom

[alittlelark]

2. 'The dem's are grasping at straws'......yeah.

We are trying to save democracy without the help of a free press.

[LisaM]

3. Yeah, Chris Vance (jerk) got the face time

I noticed this immediately when I looked at the paper this morning. Instead of first pointing out the problem (Republican ballots are being allowed to be corrected; Democratic ones are NOT) the paper uses this preposterous quote on the front page and any other explanation or rebuttal is inside the paper (I just glanced at the front page this a.m.) The governor's race is very tight and it could matter.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

4. The Rethugs are the only ones who can make a "Florida" out of...

and election!

:grr:

[keopeli]

5. Percent of King County who voted for Bush* - 18%! Yeah!

[glitch]

6. I have no problem giving this ass 'Florida'. They're trying to set the

'sore loserman' meme. Good luck to them.
We don't rollover because some one calls us names here in WA state.

[a new day]

7. A report from King County BBV forum

Right after the election, I was looking to see if anything was up where I live, since the precincts I was a GOTV captain for had been fairly well run.

I found this on the King county BBV forum:

"I worked as the Acuvote judge, and the two poll book judges were Repubs, the inspector was a Dem. All day long I listened to the Repubs. whine about having to make out provisional ballots, and how they thought that the folks who registered new voters were to blame for not informing the new voters properly, and blah, blah, blah. Well, as the poll closed a young, first-time voter was filling out a provisional ballot. Just by chance, I noticed that her name WAS PROPERLY PRINTED IN THE POLL BOOK! When I confronted the poll book worker, she acted as though it was an accident. Upon closer examination, she had given out a number of other provisionals to voters who were indeed listed in her poll book. I think that it was shameless intimidation and deception. I plan on reporting this individual to the county and hope to have her banned for this. Thought BBV folks might find it interesting."

A number of new, young voters forced to vote on provisional ballots, when their names were on the rolls. It didn't seem like much, coming from a single precinct, but now that provisional ballotss are being thrown out without the ability to challenge, it does.

[nancyharris]

8. Actually

<"If I am not mistaken, it was the Republicans who first filed suit in Florida over the 2000 count. Can someone provide a source for this information?">

All Gore fied suit against the State of Florida after he lost the first recount. George Bush filed suit against the Florida Supreme Court decision that required an additional recount.

[a new day]

9. There was no suit required to request a manual recount

The first legal action was the suit filed in federal court by the Republicans to stop the manual recount.

[baby_bear]

10. Correct. It was Nov 12

James Baker filed to stop the manual recount in federal court. It was denied and then he took it to the appellate court.

[nancyharris]

11. Sorry, but

the first recount was automatic. The second was a result of Gore's suit against the state of Florida. Look it up.

[a new day]

12. That is the urban legend, but that isn't what happened

This is a case of being hung for a lamb. The GOP strategy from the start was to go to court. Their smokescreen was that it was the Democrats who were tying it up in courts, but the first shot was fired by the Bush campaign.

http://uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/ARTICLES/pe2000timeline.php

2000 Events Timeline - Post-Election
November 7, 2000 - Election Day
7:50 pm The Associated Press declares Vice President Al Gore the victor in Florida, based on Voter News Service projections from exit polls. The major TV networks call Florida for Gore between 7:50 and 8:00pm.
9:30 pm Florida begins to look more uncertain as the vote totals accumulate more in favor of Texas Gov. George Bush. Bush, talking with reporters, says "The networks called this thing awfully early, but the people actually counting the votes are coming up with a different perspective. So we're pretty darn upbeat about things."
10 pm Networks begin retracting the projection that Gore wins Florida; the state reverts to too close to call.

November 8, 2000
2:15 am Bush appears to take a decisive lead in Florida. Some estimates have Bush leading Gore by 50,000 votes. Networks project Bush to be the winner of Florida and the Presidency between 2:16 and 2:20 am.
2:30 am Gore calls Bush to concede the election.
3:00 am Gore leaves the hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. His motorcade heads to the War Memorial Plaza, where he plans to address supporters.
3:15 am Gore advisers call the vice president to tell him Bush's lead in Florida has diminished dramatically. He returns to his hotel without addressing his supporters. Reports show that less than 1,000 votes separates Bush and Gore in the state of Florida.
3:30 am Gore calls Bush back to retract his concession. Networks retract the projection that Bush wins Florida between 3:57 and 4:15 am. The state reverts to too close to call. The Presidency is once again undecided.
Morning The final margin of the Florida vote is reported to be 1,784 votes; Bush leads Gore 2,909,135 (48.8%) to 2,907,351 (48.8%) with other candidates receiving 139,616 votes (2.4%).
• Some voting irregularities are alleged, especially in Palm Beach County where voters complain that their punch card ballots were configured in a manner that was confusing.
• A full machine recount of votes is ordered in Florida - this is due to Florida Election Code 102.141 that requires a recount of ballots if the margin of victory is 0.5% or less.
• Florida Governor Jeb Bush officially recuses himself from the process.

November 9, 2000
• The preliminary nationwide popular vote numbers are: Gore 48,976,148 votes and Bush 48,783,510 votes. Bush has won 29 states with 246 electoral votes. Gore has won 18 states plus the District of Columbia for a total of 260 electoral votes. Neither candidate has enough electoral votes to claim victory.
• Pat Buchanan agrees with the Gore campaign that the Palm Beach County ballot was confusing and says he believes many of his votes there were meant for Gore.
• Gore's team requests a hand count of presidential ballots in four Florida counties (allowed under Florida Election Code 102.166), Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Volusia. These four counties are strong Democratic areas and had a total of about 1.8 million votes cast.
• Vice President Al Gore returns to Washington, where he will spend most of the month.
• Bush meets with advisers and potential members of a Bush administration. Aides say announcements of Cabinet appointments could be made within a week.
• Sixty-four of Florida's 67 counties have recounted their votes, Bush leads Gore by 362 votes in an unofficial tally by the Associated Press.
5 p.m. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris says official results from the recount may not be completed until the following Tuesday, November 14.

November 10, 2000
• New Mexico, with five electoral votes, is retracted from Gore; the state reverts to too close to call.
• Oregon is called for Gore.

November 11, 2000
• The Bush camp seeks a federal injunction to stop hand recounts of ballots in several Florida counties because of alleged equal protection and other constitutional violations.
• George W. Bush heads to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he will spend most of the month.

[a new day]

13. Democrats win in court over ballots

A Superior Court judge ordered King County election officials to give Democrats the names of 929 voters whose provisional ballots face rejection over signature inconsistencies. The state Democratic Party sued for that list so it can try to track down those voters and encourage them to appeal the rejection, as Republicans are doing in a number of Rossi-leaning counties.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/199564_governor13.html