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<DIV>I have to give Rossi a lot of credit for dropping this and let the business
of the state continue. It appears that Gregoire seems to be headed in the right
direction. She raised taxes but it appears it was necessary after Tim Imans
antics the past few years. WSU employees are getting a 5% raise and UI employees
get 1/2 a bucket of armpits.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Washington's election pointed out a lot of flaws in their election
system which it seems is quite common around the country. It didn't appear any
worse than Florida's system.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dick Schmidt</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><EM>today's (June 7, 2005) Spokesman Review.<BR></EM><BR>Washingtonians may
now return to their daily
lives.<BR><BR>------------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Rossi
puts an end to governor's race<BR><BR>By Richard Roesler<BR>Staff
writer<BR><BR>June 6, 2005<BR><BR>WENATCHEE - Six months after losing the
election for governor by just 129<BR>votes, Republican Dino Rossi threw in the
towel today, saying it would be<BR>politically unrealistic to believe he could
prevail in an appeal of today's<BR>legal ruling against his pursuit of a new
election.<BR><BR>"Because of the political makeup of the Washington Supreme
Court, which<BR>makes it almost impossible to overturn this ruling, I am ending
this<BR>election contest," Rossi said in televised comments from his
campaign<BR>headquarters in Bellevue.<BR><BR>Rossi's decision came just hours
after a resounding defeat in a Wenatchee<BR>courtroom.<BR><BR>Chelan County
Superior Court Judge John Bridges ruled that although there<BR>were more than
1,400 illegal votes in November's gubernatorial election,<BR>Republicans had
failed to show how any of those people voted. <BR><BR>Without proof that the
errors illegally robbed Republicans of victory, the<BR>judge said today, his
hands were tied by the state's election laws.<BR><BR>"Irregularity.is not
sufficient to invalidate an election," said Bridges. He<BR>criticized the
mistakes, but upheld Gov. Christine Gregoire's narrow win and<BR>even improved
it slightly. He raised the margin to 133 votes based on the<BR>testimony of four
felons who said they'd illegally voted for Rossi.<BR><BR>"Unless an election is
clearly invalid, when the people have spoken, their<BR>verdict should not be
disturbed by the courts," the judge said.<BR><BR>Republicans had talked of
appealing the case to the Supreme Court before the<BR>court's long summer
recess. But Rossi said today that it was time to call<BR>off the contest even
though he believes the conflict served to illustrate<BR>serious flaws in the
state's election system.<BR><BR>State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt
called the Wenatchee trial "a<BR>slam-dunk.<BR><BR>"I couldn't believe how
poorly they (Republicans) put their case together,"<BR>Berendt said. "I don't
see where that ruling gave them an inch to try and<BR>appeal."<BR><BR>Berendt
said that the Democrats have spent $3.5 million on the research and<BR>legal
fight since Election Day.<BR><BR>Both sides looked uneasy before the ruling.
<BR><BR>At the Republican table, GOP attorney Robert Maguire could be heard
saying<BR>to fellow Republican lawyer Harry Korrell "Look confident, Harry." But
as<BR>the judge read, Republican attorneys slumped.<BR><BR>The Democrat
attorneys - who had already chilled their champagne at a local<BR>lawyer's
office - were jubilant. When the judge left, they gave each other<BR>high-fives
and gleefully posed for photos with a four-foot-tall mockup of<BR>Gregoire's
election certificate.<BR><BR>Republicans in the audience were
dismayed.<BR><BR>"Truly, no one really knows who won this election," said former
House<BR>Speaker Clyde Ballard, an East Wenatchee native.<BR><BR>Thoughout the
nine-day trial, Republicans maintained that the illegal votes<BR>and mistakes
verged on "fraud" and "ballot-stuffing."<BR><BR>It would be preposterous, they
said to put 1,400 felons on the stand and ask<BR>each how they
voted.<BR><BR>"It's completely untrustworthy," Korrell said. "We're talking
about felons.<BR>How could you believe it?"<BR><BR>Plus, he said, Republicans
didn't want to violate the secrecy of the ballot<BR>by trying to make people say
how they voted.<BR><BR>Instead, they based their case on a controversial theory
called proportional<BR>deduction. It assumes that the felons voted the same way
their neighbors<BR>did. If a felon came from a strong Gregoire precinct,
Republicans argued,<BR>the odds are good that that felon voted for
Gregoire.<BR><BR>But Democratic expert witnesses - and the judge - said that
Republicans<BR>couldn't simply assume that felons voted like their neighbors.
For one<BR>thing, most felons are men, and Rossi did better among men than among
women.<BR><BR>In fact, Democrats questioned five of the felons. Four said they
voted for<BR>Rossi; one said he voted for Libertarian Ruth Bennett. Judge
Bridges<BR>deducted those votes from Rossi and Bennett on Monday.<BR><BR>In his
ruling, the judge noted that Republicans had asked him to use his<BR>powers to
send a message to election officials.<BR><BR>"I'm going to decline that
invitation," Bridges said. "This court is not in<BR>a position to fix the
deficiencies in the election process that we heard<BR>about in this courtroom in
the past nine days."<BR><BR>There clearly are problems, the judge said. But
"it's the voters who should<BR>send the message," he said.<BR><BR>He also
blasted what King County elections official Dean Logan described as<BR>the
"culture" he found when he took over two years ago.<BR><BR>"Almost anyone who
works in state or local government knows exactly what<BR>this culture is," the
judge said. "It's inertia. It's selfishness. It's<BR>taking our paycheck but not
doing the work.It's not taking responsibility.<BR>It's about refusing to be held
accountable."<BR><BR>The judge also criticized Republicans, saying that despite
their allegations<BR>of fraud and ballot-stuffing, they'd been unable to prove
any.<BR><BR>"There is no evidence that the ballots were changed, the ballot box
stuffed,<BR>or that lawful votes were removed from either candidate's ballot
box," he<BR>said.<BR><BR>Dean Logan, the man who oversees King County elections
said today that the<BR>agency "can and will do better."<BR><BR>"We will take the
next three months to carefully examine and address<BR>decades-old elections
problems which have plagued this organization," Logan<BR>said in a written
statement. "Rest assured, we have learned from our<BR>mistakes."<BR><BR>Outside
the courtroom, former House Speaker Ballard was
profoundly<BR>skeptical.<BR><BR>"They're not going to change," Ballard said. The
judge's criticism, he said,<BR>"will be like rain hitting the back of a duck.
They're
impervious."<BR><BR>--------------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Take
care, Moscow.<BR><BR>Tom Hansen<BR>Moscow, Idaho<BR><BR><BR>"What is
objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they<BR>are
extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say<BR>about
their cause, but what they say about their opponents."<BR><BR>-- Robert F.
Kennedy<BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>