Christine Gregoire sworn in

[rdmccur]

Just got this letter

"At Last! Victory in Washington

Dear Ron,

Congratulations are in order! First, congratulations to Christine Gregoire who was officially sworn in as the Governor of Washington State yesterday in Olympia. Secondly, congratulations to all of our members who took action and helped make this win happen! Speaker Frank Chopp's office tells us that our emails to the state legislature last week outnumbered the efforts of the far right 100 letters to 1. In addition, Progressive Majority members sent letters urging Dinno Rossi to concede and to the lone Democrat who voted incorrectly. Ultimately - we kept the public pressure on and helped Gregoire's team secure victory.

This win is very far-reaching. We just took control of the Washington State Senate in the November elections and Governor Gregoire's victory builds on and solidifies all of our hard work to build a progressive majority in Washington State.

This is just the beginning - Progressive Majority is aiming for more than marginal control of the state legislature - we intend to elect a progressive caucus in Washington State. We are already hard at work, recruiting candidates for the state house and senate in 2006 and we need your support. Please take a moment right now to make a contribution to Progressive Majority in support of candidate recruitment:

Click here to support candidate recruitment!

Progressives everywhere should feel extremely proud of all of our victories in Washington State. I have every confidence that this State Legislature and Governor Gregoire won't rest until progressive values become progressive state policy.

Onward to more progressive victories,

Dean M. Nielsen
Washington State Director
Progressive Majority"

[Carolab]

1. Does this mean the Repukes aren't filing suit? n/t

[Merlot]

2. repubs are ALWAYS filing a suit

I'm not in WA state, but am glad to have some good news for a change. And this was a significant victory.

[Carolab]

3. You know it! I'm glad I could help Christine, too! n/t

[jsw_81]

4. I like Gregoire

And I definitely would have voted for her if I still lived in Washington, but I'm very uncomfortable with this kind of "victory." I'm inclined to believe that Rossi -- as despicable as he is -- was the real winner; I guess we'll never know.

[Amaryllis]

5. Read this if you have any doubts; study indicates machine fraud in

Snohomish Co.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss//duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=264336&mesg_id=271606&page=

[Peace Patriot]

6. "I'm inclined to believe...", "I guess we'll never know"...

"...I'm very uncomfortable...," "this kind" of victory...

Any facts, jsw_81?

[jsw_81]

8. Three key facts

1. Rossi was ahead on election night.

2. Rossi was ahead after the machine counts.

3. Gregoire is now governor.

What's wrong with this picture? Replace 'Gregoire' with 'Rossi' above and every single DUer -- including you -- would be screaming and marching in the streets. And you know I'm right.

[Carolab]

10. Sure, but machine errors were favoring Rossi, just as they have Bush.

The hand recounts proved this. And, if the machines had not been "defaulting to Bush", the victory would have belonged even more decisively to Gregoire.

[rfrrfrrfr]

11. Nothing is wrong with that picture

Because of things you conviently decided not to post.

1. The SOS Did his job and enforced the election laws in a fair and non-partisan manner. Which it might be good to point out he is taking severe heat from his party for doing so.

2. Both the originall election and the Machine recount produced results well within the error rate of the machines doing the counting. This is the specific reason why there is a mandatory machine recount and a process for candidates to request a full hand recount. A Hand count is by far the most accurate way to count ballots.
3. Christine Gregoire Asked for and paid for a full statewide recount willing to accept the possiblity she could lose instead of cherry picking counties that she would most likely

4. The courts made very simple, clear and non-partisan decisions on both suits brought by the democrats. Both internaly consistent and consistent with each other. And according to how the state law reads both correct.

If Rossi had won and the SOS had been acting in a partisan Manner like Blackwell in OHIO or Harris in Florida, Or If the courts had acted in a partisan manner or made contradicting rulings, Or if there had been widespread voter supression then yes we would have been protesting such an election.

But and its a big humongus BUT that didn't happen in WA. I think the worst thing that happened in Wa is there may have been some irregularities in the PRESIDENTIAL race in sonomish county. So far though even that is nothing more than speculation and even if true more than likely would have no bearing on the governor's race.

Rossi, Chris Vance and the vast majority of the republican party in Washington sate are hippocrits just like their national brethren. If there really were all these problems as they claim, why were they not yelling and screaming about them when Rossi was in the lead or during the first recount. They were not calling for a revote then and his election would have been just as fraudlent as they are claiming Gregoire's to be if what they maintain were true.

They are also liars. I heard them on the radio lie and say the courts changed the law which they didn't. Of course none of the iterviewers in the media bothered to correct them or point the fact that they were lying or "misinformed". And where were they when the democrats sued the state to count many of the very ballots they want counted now. Oh yeah they OPPOSED the democrats suit and cheered the courts decision.

[claudiajean]

12. Very astute analyis, jsw_81.

The principle problem with the election in Washington is that ballots were grossly mishandled in King County, and moderately mishandled in five other counties.

There are clearly a number of mishandled and illegally cast ballots in excess of the margin of victory. This meets the simple test required for level of error for an election to be set aside, under Washington law. The election should be set aside by the court, and a vacancy election should be run to fill the post.

And if we were on the other end of the win/loss column, we would be DEMANDING a court set-aside and vacancy special election.

(I hate using the term re-vote, becasue it wouldn't really be a re-vote, and I don't want to use their terminology.)

Further, I don't see what we are afraid of. Chris will beat Dino in a re-match, and it would provide her with a clear mandate to govern without all of this distraction.

[eridani]

13. Why would there be fewer screwups in a revote?

Where is the documentation of illegally cast ballots? The elections process was disorganized when Rossi was ahead by 42, it was disorganized when Gregoire was ahead by 130, and I don't see any reason to think things will get shipshape in a couple of weeks for a revote.

The only guarantee that Chris will beat Dino is if there is an all paper system that will nullify the Snohomish pro Dino machine cheating. Note that the touchscreens COULD NOT BE RECOUNTED!!!

[fasttense]

14. You are exactly right.

How can you make sure the re-vote isn't rigged too? I'd be for a re-vote if I knew the election was fair.

The Repukes rigged it and their rigging was not supported by the SOS so the true results came out.

[claudiajean]

17. One contest ballots are substantially easier to administer....

...than a Presidential election with a Gubernatorial race.

There are so many weird balloting rules that apply only to Presidential elections that a stand-alone state race would be much more cut and dried, and easier to administer. With few races, there are also fewer voter intent questions, fewer jurisdictional issues (everyone has the same jurisdiction) which cause special ballot problems, etc. etc.

That's why there would be less chaos, regardless of what a mess King County is. (Although, some rapid personnel changes there would also help.) Further, there would be more eyes on the process from start to finish. This time, the eyes appeared when it was obvious the races was close, so a large part of the process was missed.

And, state law would require 45 days, not just a couple of weeks, to run an election because of the time needed to print absentee ballots.

I completely agree with you regarding Snohomish and Yakima's un-auditable DRE's. They have not been certified, cannot be recounted (which I believe fails the sniff test under Washington law) and need to be banned. If Sam Reed were a responsible SOS, he would do just that.

The fact of the matter is, elections have been set aside before due to error in Washington, just not on this scale. In 1997, there was a close school district race that was re-run, due to a typo on the polling place list of all things! That was the only error, a bad address for a polling place that everyone in the neighborhood already knew was their location! No fraud was needed, it's just when one of the parties can show that the race was so close that an error on the part of the elections workers could have changed the outcome of the race.

As for documentation of illegally cast ballots, a substantial amount already exists, regrettably. There are voter registration irregularities that probably affected us as well as the GOP, there are the problems with the provisionals at the polls, there is substantial evidence that King County mishandled provisionals and absentees with signature issues, etc. The mistakes really add up.

And "illegally cast ballots" does not translate to fraud. That's not what I'm saying, and I don't agree with the GOP's yelling about fraud. But a provisional ballot that was run through the Accu-Vote at the pollsite is an illegally cast ballot, regardless of whether it would have been legal had the ballot been properly returned in the envelope. And Dean Logan has publicly admitted that there are 348 of those in King County ALONE.

348 is well over the margin of 129, so even if that was the only mistake, I think the court will find that the election needs to be vacated. I fully expect that will be the result.

But again, I think that Chris has nothing to worry about. She'll beat him in a second match-up.

[eridani]

19. Again, could the Dems demand all paper ballots in Snohomish?

I wouldn't object to an all paper revote with a mandatory hand count. I'd really get my back up if we couldn't get those conditions. We know the electorate is divided on this, so it will be close again. It would be really helpful if the Dems would be proactive in straightening out the election board mess also.

[LisaL]

15. A re-vote? Name one time when we actually got a re-vote?

Did we get a re-vote in Florida in 2000? Did we get a re-vote in OH in 2004? Then why should Rossi get one?:eyes:
He should just get over it, the sore loser that he is. And if he ended up ahead, that's exactly what he would be telling to us. So, get over it , Rossi, you lost!

[Peace Patriot]

7. HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO GREGOIRE, TO THE PROGRESSIVE...

...MAJORITY, AND TO ALL GREGOIRE SUPPORTERS!

I don't care how close it was. I wouldn't care if it was just one vote. This is the kind of fighting spirit I want to see in the Democratic Party! To the wire! To the end! To every last vote! Take no quarter! Take no prisoners! Take no crap from these mass murderers, thieves and liars!

They have stolen our democracy! They have denied us the right to vote! They mean to steal us blind, and send our children and our friends to their bloody deaths in foreign lands, to gain riches and power for themselves! Why should we give them any consideration whatsoever?

Christine, whatever the vote margin was, know that you have a special mandate from your fervent supporters in Washington who stuck with you through thick and thin, and from progressives all over the country, to stand up against the rightwing ideologues and hypocrites of the Republican Party. Your mandate is nationwide, not just in Washington. And we WILL support you!

[catgirl]

9. Yup. REAL hand counts don't lie

while many machines do these days. Gregoire hung in
there and got the victory that she earned.

[hoosierblue]

16. Her mandate is nationwide?

Now you're just being silly. Gregoire won, yes, and fairly. But her mandate surely isn't nationwide. Don't stick her in with the same crowd as *.

Silly.

[GOPBasher]

18. I can't believe we actually got a victory.

I honestly thought that in any close election, the Repukes would win because they're so much more ruthless than we are, and they never stop fighting. This is such awesome news!

Now, for the voting machines in the swing states...