Ridiculous. Now that the Democrats have won the Governor seat after two different recounts and randomly added votes, they are strutting toward Olympia. Mind you these are the same people that had to have the hand recount because “machines make mistakes” [and humans don’t?!] – these same people are now offended by the Republicans that are asking for a “second” election. If the Democrats are so positive that their candidate won fairly, why not have a second election? It’s not like any of the counts or recounts were all that conclusive – the fact that they made the comment of “the Republicans only want another election because they lost” just pissed me off… like the Democrats demanded two recounts only because they were concerned about fairness?
Right. I’m officially insulted but this latest twist.
I call bullshit.
While I agree a re-vote should of happened months ago, the republicans didnt want second votes counted when it worked against them. And, at the time, if it was close enough and the democrats asked for a revote, it would of been as equally balked on.
$4 million MORE on this fisaco is why there’s not a revote.
“We need a human recount because machines make mistakes.” I’ll say no more on the rational for counting – ANY group that goes public with that statement for the rational of blowing $2 million dollars loses all credibility with me. To follow that up with “they just want a revote because they lost” is just insulting because THEY seem to think that they only wanted recounts for the value of honesty.
And I still say it’s lame ass shit that all of sudden a few 1000 votes appeared all over the state.
Wait a minute: the recount is a process allowed for under state law. The re-vote is not. It’s like the difference between challenging a call in the NFL — perfectly legit if you take the risk of losing a time-out, and asking for the whole game to be played over, which is not legit. Rossi didn’t demand a revote to establish the legitimacy of the governorship when he was ahead by 42 votes, and neither did Gregoire.
As Ed Kilgore, a conservative Democrat, wrote on his blog (newdonkey.com):
“There was nothing shady or unexpected about Gregoire’s taking the lead after the hand recount. Most Washington counties use optical scanners, a voting method which, despite its many virtues, tends to produce a significant number of counting errors, usually to the detriment of Democratic candidates. A few weeks ago, Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox told me she was certain Gregoire would ultimately prevail for that very reason.”
I haven’t seen anyone argue that the election result is “conclusive.” The margin is clearly within the normal margin of error. The best you can do is follow the procedures allowed by the law, which is what Gregoire did.
I’m not debating that what Gregoire did was within in the limit of the law. What I’m pointing out is that the Democrats are using asinine comments and moronic reasons for their actions. Saying that they needed humans to count “because machines make mistakes” and that they continued to push for recounts, not because they lost, but because they wanted it to be right just doesn’t play well with me. It’s insulting. Much like you point out that Rossi didn’t push for a revote when he was winning, the same thing should apply to the other party. If the Democrats had simply come out with “we don’t think we should have lost, we want a recount” it would be better than coming out with the stupid remarks that have made it to the papers.
As for the optical scanners producing invalid counts, yeah, that used to happen with the SAT’s about twenty years ago… so why are we still using them? If they’re good enough to use for testing that decide futures, they should be pretty accurate… aside from that, why would it be more for one party than the other? That makes no sense at all.
What I DO find to be “suspicious” is that there were suddenly new votes being added to the pile with each recount. Oh, and I don’t think that the Democrats padded the count on purpose – why wait for a recount to inject false positives? – or anything shady… I just don’t understand how that happens, if this is supposed to be such a fine tuned process. I think that it’s a great example that the WA election process is completely fucked and needs an overhaul – and yes, I’m still bitter that I was told I was registered and still couldn’t vote.
I think it’s too late for Rossi to try and push for an overhaul, but I’m hoping the close race for the top seat a) gets even more people to vote next year and b) in four years that the process fixed…
To me, it’s been bungled far worse than FL, no matter who ultimately wins… even though I was hoping for Rossi. No matter who wins, the other party will feel that the office was stolen…