WA: Judge blocks count of newly discovered ballots in governor's race

[Newsjock]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Governor%20Recount

By REBECCA COOK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

TACOMA, Wash. -- A judge Friday granted a state Republican Party request to block the counting of hundreds of recently discovered King County ballots in Washington's incredibly close governor's race.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend's decision hinged on whether it was simply too late for counties to reconsider ballots from the November election, even if such ballots were erroneously rejected by election workers.

From reading state law and state Supreme Court decisions, "it is clear to me that it is not appropriate to go back and revisit decisions on whether ballots should or should not be counted," Arend said.

State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt said the party would appeal the decision.

"We're going to fight for every vote to count in the state of Washington," he said. "I guess we're headed to the (state) Supreme Court."

more

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[merwin]

7. All of them were rejected, but they were rejected by error of the

elections office. They marked "mismatch signature" when there was no electronic signature on file. They should have looked up the original document.

[joeybee12]

10. But didn't they find some ballots in a machine that hadn't been counted?

Can't see how she can justify those as having been "previously rejected"???

[merwin]

13. They will say that those hadn't been secured properly n/t

[Tacos al Carbon]

12. "bitch" "skank"

What the hell does the Judge's gender have to do with it? Does it make you feel better to express your mysoginy in such a "progressive" way?

[Name removed]

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[Tacos al Carbon]

18. Yes, yes

And because she didn't rule the way you wanted in this instance, it's OK to demean her as a woman and a human being and to advocate her rape. That's mighty progressive of you.

[Renew Deal]

20. Please post

where I advocated her rape. I'd like to see that. In my opinion I did not demean her as a woman. You disagree. That's life. But at least be honest.

[Name removed]

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[Renew Deal]

26. It took me a second to get this.

[Tacos al Carbon]

25. Read the first two words of your post

Seems fairly unambiguous to me. Or did you mean "make sweet, consensual love to her?"

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

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[Tacos al Carbon]

29. You can be a woman

and a mysoginist, a minority and a racist, a homosexual and a homophobe. This is nothing new, but thanks for proving the point once again.

[DrWeird]

30. I think you're proving her point.

But seriously. I don't think you're fooling anybody. Are you fooling yourself?

[Tacos al Carbon]

36. Seriously?

I'm seriously against the use of mysoginistic terms and I don't think that they are appropriate even when the target is a political adversary. Same goes for racist or homophobic terms.

People who call women "bitches" and "skanks" blacks "niggers," homosexuals "fags," etc. and then justify it based on the political beliefs of the targets of their slurs are fooling themselves when they say that they are liberals or progressives. They sure as hell aren't fooling me.

[Name removed]

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[JI7]

32. right, and the judge is a bitch and an asshole

[merwin]

33. OK, can we just leave the fighting and bickering outside?

It's nowhere near topic and doesn't help anything.

[merwin]

2. What complete and utter BS

The law in Washington leaves the reconsideration of ballots up to the election officials i believe.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. What a crock of crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Guess it just does not really matter

if you vote or not any more...........they won't necessarily be counted.

[montanacowboy]

4. Repukes filed case in Pierce County

instead of King Co. where they knew they'd get a good shake - always looking for the edge anyway they can - that's two times they have won

[Mojambo]

5. Republicans are AGAINST counting votes

How many times does this have to happen before people understand?

[chomskysright]

39. we should create an image of them as 'vote count haters'...

something more clever....that will stick like shine on a bad suit

[pmbryant]

6. That decision and its rationale just plain stink

Shades of Scalia here. :grr:

The whole point of a re-count is to find valid ballots and count every single one. Not just those in Republican counties. At least that's what it should be in a Democracy.

Peter

[Renew Deal]

8. If this stays

Washingtonians should make the Seattle riots look like a fucking day at the park.

[uppityperson]

9. Even in WA?

Time to go to the Supreme Court of WA. Ooops, missed them before. Never mind. This is why Everyone should be patient and COUNT ALL THE VOTES before declaring a winner. Make sure they are all counted. This may take more time, but give us a break! ARGHHH!!!!

[w4rma]

11. Acording to this judge election officials can mess with people's votes.

and noone can go back and override these election officials (who may be corrupt, but I don't know if they are because I'm not a mind reader).

Should have seen this coming back when the Repugs started subverting democracies in other countries for the robber barons. It was only a matter of time before they started doing it here too and in just as blatant a way, also.

[pleiku52cab]

14. Are superior court judges elected or appointed

in the state of Washington. If appointed, who appointed her? If elected, do they declare party affiliation during the election?

[Rose Siding]

22. The elections are non-partisan, but...

appointments can be made if a spot is vacated until the next election.

They say "non-partisan" but there are usually some endorsements that give hints as to their leanings.

[pleiku52cab]

40. I guess we don't need any hints about this twit.

[Benhurst]

16. I know it seems a bit bizarre; but that's the way things are in

BushAmerica. :puke:

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary ...

[VegasWolf]

17. Moral of story: Hide all unfavorable votes until it's too late. n/t

[rodeodance]

35. yes, sadly you are right--

[pa28]

19. It's headed to the state Supreme Court.

Fingers crossed they will do the right thing.

[progressivebydesign]

23. Judge Stephanie Arend.. HERE is why they chose Pierce County.

Stephanie Arend was appointed by Locke, and then ran for her position as an incumbent. She is considered pretty lightweight for her job, because of her lack of experience.

Wanna know why they got her to hear it? She's a REAL ESTATE law specialist, her lastest job being in the REAL ESTATE/LAND USE area of a LARGE law firm in the State. Dino Rossi.. gosh WHAT is his pedigree? Oh yeah, REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER/BROKER who is FUCKING ENDORSED BY ALL THE REAL ESTATE ORGANIZATIONS IN THE STATE.

If I had the time, I'm CERTAIN I could find a lovely, cozy relationship between Arend's former firm and Dino Rossi.

Makes ZERO sense for them to file in Pierce County. The ballots are IN KIng County, the State Capitol is in THURSTON COUNTY. I think a Superior Court is small potatoes for a decision like this... SHe needs to go back to school, for she has fucked BIG TIME on this "decision".

[chomskysright]

41. here is a start on Arend research....

http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/xml/abtus/ourorg/aud/elections/archives/sep2004/filings.htm

[chomskysright]

43. OK: I asked google to find the answer...

discover the cozy relationship between Stephanie Arend's (judge, WA
state)former firm and Dino Rossi. ; see this lead: has to do with WA
state recount and ARend's decision to block the recount:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1081223&mesg_id=1081286&page=

let's see what they come up with

[Rose Siding]

46. She'd been rated "minimally qualified"

from a kos diary-

snip>
Pierce County, WA Superior Court judge Stephanie Arend, who today blocked the counting of more than 700 ballots, was rated "minimally qualified" by the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association when she ran for office in 1999.
...
Department 12 (in alphabetical order, asterisk marks incumbent)

Lloyd L. Alton, Jr. Well qualified
Stephanie A. Arend* Minimally qualified
Scott A. Candoo Well qualified
Clayton R. Dickinson Qualified
Henry Haas Exceptionally well qualified
Christine J. Quinn-Brintnall Qualified
Douglas W. VanScoy Well qualified
Karl L. Williams Well qualified|
Edward S. Winskill Exceptionally well qualified

Department 20 (in alphabetical order, asterisk marks incumbent)

John A. Feutz Exceptionally well qualified
Kitty-Ann Van Doorninck* Well qualified

http://www.onpointlegal.com/LawyerTalk2/Elections99.htm

The diarist wrote that it's one bump above "unqualified". What was Locke thinking?

[SoCalDem]

24. Dueling judges.. Not a good thing for democracy.. Why NOT count

the votes? It's just downright slimy to ask people to vote, to be able to discern their choice, and then deliberately NOT count their votes..:grr:

[tandot]

31. Of course, Repukes don't want every vote to be counted.

As long as the election outcome is in their favor, they give a sh*t about Americans' right to vote, or if we have a third-world election system. They give a sh*t about fair elections.

Whatever it takes to win...lying, cheating, stealing, defrauding... that is what the Bushler Gestapo is best at.

[Raftysworld]

Unbelievable

This is a complete blow to democracy. Why is a recount necessary? To find ballots that were previously missed, to ensure that every vote was accurately counted, and to make this election fair. If someone rules to block vote counting due to an error made my a county election official, that's a serious lack of judgement. I'm confident though that the supreme court will make the right decision.

[bullimiami]

34. so by their logic

if I were the superviser in a pug county and decided to just "reject" a bunch of votes then they could never be included thereaflter.

smart.

[merwin]

38. Only if it's before the election is over :-) n/t

[merwin]

42. Screw the republican idiots, we will win anyways! Only king county left

We're only 50 votes behind... King county will give her what she needs.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x174005

[AP]

44. That would create a bad precedent: don't count ballots

the first time for any bad reason. If they don't get counted in the first round, they'll never get counted even if they were valid ballots.

There would be a huge incentive to make accidents during the machine counts.

There's no good reason not to count valid ballots, and at any stage you should be able to recover ballots accidentally not counted.

[The Backlash Cometh]

45. Fraud has no legal protection.

If those ballots are inappropriately held back by partisan election workers, then the Repubs have no standing in the court.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

47. Similar discovered votes were counted in counties.....

...that were favorable to Rossi.

Since when do judges in Pierce county have jurisdiction over King County elections?

[Just Me]

48. All I can say as a former Washingtonian is: "FIGHT"!!!!

NEVER GIVE UP!!!

EVER!!!!

[HuffleClaw]

49. "...simply too late..." ???

"Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend said it was simply too late for counties to reconsider ballots from the November election, even if such ballots were erroneously rejected by election workers."

erm, since when has that got anything to do with democracy ?

[goforit]

50. Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!