Numbers speak for themselves, GOP says (WA Gov trial, day three)

[icymist]

Thursday, May 26, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m.




Numbers speak for themselves, GOP says

By David Postman

Times chief political Reporter;

WENATCHEE — At the close of day three in the governor's election trial yesterday, the essence of the Republican case alleging ballot stuffing and stealing was projected on a large screen: eight columns and 12 rows of figures on half of a folded piece of paper.

Attorneys didn't finger any suspects or lay out a plot. And the numbers were shown only after a skeptical Judge John Bridges said the Republican witness who had them was walking a thin line between sticking to the stats and giving his opinion about what they meant.

"The saying is 'trying to lick honey from the edge of a razor blade,' I think," Bridges had cautioned.

The figures on the screen showed discrepancies in absentee-ballot counts from 11 King County precincts. In some of the precincts, the county recorded more absentee ballots counted than there were voters recorded as having voted absentee. In others, the opposite occurred: The county recorded more voters as having voted than it did ballots counted.

(More)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002289056_trial26m.html

[trotsky]

1. You know, I'm really upset

when those mean, awful, sore-loser Democrats always run to the courts when an election doesn't turn out the way... eh, what's that? Oh, never mind. ;-)

[icymist]

2. GOP dealt blow in vote trial

GOP dealt blow in vote trial
By GREGORY ROBERTS
USA - WENATCHEE -- Republicans suffered a setback yesterday to their late-developing strategy to claim fraud in the governor's race when a judge said the fraud claim can't stand as a key to the party's legal challenge of Democrat Christine Gregoire's 129-vote victory.

Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges' decision is critical because under Washington law, a challenger most likely would need to establish fraud by one side in the case to get an election overturned simply on the basis that the number of improper votes exceeded the margin of victory.

Without fraud, Republican candidate Dino Rossi faces the much more difficult task of showing that Gregoire owes her win to illegal votes or actions.

Bridges said the Republicans could still present evidence about individual votes they believe were clouded by election officials' deliberate misdeeds.

(More)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7960784/

[icymist]

3. Elections official cites mistakes (Seattle PI)

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Elections official cites mistakes

By GREGORY ROBERTS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

WENATCHEE -- King County elections officials are guilty of sloppy record keeping, compiling an account of the November 2004 vote that is incomplete, confusing and riddled with inconsistencies, according to testimony yesterday in the Republicans' legal challenge to Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire's election.

But whether any of those failings will help the GOP's cause -- or whether King County is guilty of more than that -- is not at all clear.

Indeed, the testimony of Nicole Way, a King County elections worker called as a witness by the Republicans, left Democratic lawyers smiling after her six hours on the stand.

Way, the county's mail-ballot supervisor, helped prepare an absentee-ballot report that amounts to fraud, GOP lawyer Dale Foreman said Monday in his opening statement for the two-week trial in Chelan County Superior Court.

(More)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/225885_election26.html

[jab105]

4. I'm assuming that they will call him an activist judge for this...

:)