Restoring confidence of voters (Seattle PI)

[icymist]

Monday, June 13, 2005

Restoring confidence of voters
Many call for election reform, but how and whether system needs changing still debated

By REBECCA COOK
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

According to the official record, 1,678 people voted illegally in Washington's 2004 election.

No one knows for sure who cast those votes or which candidates benefited. A judge decided that the fact the number of illegal votes dwarfs Gov. Christine Gregoire's 133-vote margin of victory doesn't merit ordering a new election.

But a new election system? If he had that power, Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges might have liked to order such a thing.

"Extraordinary efforts are in place to make it easier to vote," Bridges said last Monday, when he ruled against Republican candidate Dino Rossi's bid to nullify the election. "Unfortunately I fear it will be much more difficult to account for those votes in the future."

Ultimately, Bridges said, election reform depends on the voters themselves -- pushing for new laws, demanding changes from their elected officials or simply taking more personal responsibility for voting properly.

<snip>

On conservative weblogs after the ruling, reactions ranged from an election reform initiative to sardonic tips on registering pets and deceased relatives to vote Republican in the future.
(Is this deliberate sabotaging of the election process? Or are they just venting off steam?)

(More)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/228214_greform13.html

[0rganism]

1. watch how republicans handle being on the short end of a disputed election

Don't think for a minute they will "get over it", no sirreebob.

[baron j]

2. Probably all of those 1,678 voted for Dinosore Lossi

They can't help but beat on that felony voter drum. Now why can't ex-felon's vote? Seems a tad unconstitutional to me. Restitution is restitution.

1,678 really doesn't sound like all that much. Most likely most elections have errors in that tiny range. Now the shenanigans that went on in Ohio and elsewhere--those are real election problems.