No Neutrality

Senate passes bill to change Electoral College process | KOMO-TV - Seattle, Washington | Local & Regional

This is nothing but a thoughtless, emotional reaction to the election of 2000 as the writer acknowledges below. The Framers of this nation, however, arrived at the system of government that we have only after deep learning and earnest reflection.

In a twist of irony, the point of the electoral system, as I understand it, was to safeguard against the majority always trumping the minority. It was an attempt at "fairness" that the Bush-deranged in WA state completely misunderstand:

The proposal is aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2000 election, when Al Gore got the most votes nationwide but George W. Bush put together enough victories in key states to win a majority in the Electoral College and capture the White House.
The Washington state bill was sponsored by Sen. Eric Oemig, D-Kirkland.

The laughable part is that under this new rule, Bush would have taken the WA state electoral votes handily as he won the popular vote by some 4 million+ voters.

NOTE: It's the same Sen Oemig that repeatedly keeps pushing impeachment proceedings against the president.

HT DBPJ

Gregoire Gets it Half Right

Speaking yesterday to reporters, Ms. Gregoire made what was actually a quite insightful statement when she said, "Let's set aside our differences. We have much more that unifies us in the state of Washington than divides us."

To that I say "Amen!"

What I don't think she realizes, however, is that the thing uniting Republicans and a large number of Democrats is their opposition to her, and the shared belief that she is in fact not the true governor-elect as decided by Washington voters. What unites us is the belief that by obvious malfeasance which figured so prominently in this election, she was able to overturn an election after two counts had declared Rossi the winner. And finally, we are united in our desire to recast our votes to make it clear whom we want as governor.

This is all we have for unity Ms. Gregoire. If you manage to get installed into the Governor's Mansion, opposition to you will still be all we have to unify us.

So, I say we support Ms. Gregoire in this effort to set aside our differences, at this moment at least, looking to what unites Republicans and many Democrats: A desire to be rid of Christine Gregoire.

Reed Makes Himself Useful

Better late than never. The PI reports Secretary of State Sam Reed's proposal for election reform.  His suggestions:

1. Move the primary from September to June
2. Required written notification to voters whose signatures are bad or missing.
3. Fund a yearly 13 county election review
4. Require a ten day deadline after certification for legal challenges

There are some things missing here, aren't there?  How about some restrictions on voter registration? How about some statewide standards on canvassing? How about if we do something to overhaul the election circus in King County?

At Least Somebody is Doing Something

OK, these are not the main event, but you have to admire average folk with the stones to put themselves forward like this.  According to KIRO news, two Washington citizens have now moved ahead with their own challenges to the recent unpleasantness we all know as the "certified mess," otherwise known as the Washington governor election.

Daniel P. Stevens of Fall City sent the court a one-page notice saying he was contesting the election because the margin of victory is within the election's margin of error, "to the point that error must be assumed as a certainty."

Arthur Coday Jr. of Shoreline filed an 11-page brief arguing that the hand recount was fatally flawed for several reasons and asking the high court to inaugurate Rossi as governor.

Stevens also argues, according to KIRO, that the state constitution and the hand recount law are in contradiction since allowing the Democrats to pay for the recount violates free and equal elections. Hmm.... Kiro also makes it sound like Stevens wants the court to legislate from the bench a law that requires that the results of all the counts be averaged together to determine a winner. Can't say I like that idea.

In all likelihood these will be dismissed, especially the ill-conceived demand that the court inaugurate Rossi with no revote, but so what?  And anyway, it would appear that neither of these are lawyers, and as Hugh Hewitt can tell you, if you aren't a lawyer, how can't you be qualified to say anything that matters?

Enjoy it, this may be all you get if the Republicans and the Rossi team don't get their challenge submitted by tomorrow.

More on King County's WillFul Neglect

Mac over at Pull On Superman's Cape reports that KING5 News investigated voter fraud in Washington back in 1998 as a result of a nationwide investigation by the Fair Elections Group. Referencing the video from KING5, Mac says,

The Fair Elections Group immediately reported: There are thousands of voters illegally registered and voting in King County!

In the video, King County officials promise they will correct the problems. Later the King County Council met about reform and noted that there were thousands of cases of illegal voting in King County and that the King 5 investigation and videos were significant and instrumental in pointing out the problems.

The Fair Elections Group also determined that about 5,200 voters in King County were registered twice.

An exhaustive crawl of the King County web site doesn't find any effort of any kind of reforming voting procedure or registration reform any time between 1998 and the present.

This supports my contention that King County is culpable for their "incompetence." It is willful, not accidental, not just an oversight. They know full well that such "incompetence" favors their candidates and as a result have done nothing in the past seven years to resolve any of these issues.

Washington Election - Gregoire Makes a Surprising Announcement

In a sudden and surprising statement that sounds remarkably like clear thinking, Christine Gregoire has made a request of the Democrat Party:

"My request of the state Democratic Party is simple: Count the entire state or don't count at all," she said in a statement released by her campaign office. "Counting every vote is the only right thing to do."

It is surprising for two reasons:  First of all, in that she is acknowledging that in order to maintain any semblance of consistency, the phrase "count every vote" cannot just apply to votes in King County.  Secondly, it is shocking in its display, however dim and belated, of some amount of character.

This is really the beginnings of a Gregoire concession in my opinion.  She will most likely not come up with the $1 million plus that it will take to recount the whole state, and she is easing her supporters into it.  Again, I am surprised that the money has not been forthcoming, but there are some reasons for it.  I think in general, Democrats may not want to be on the record as having ignored two vote counts in order to achieve a desired result.  Secondly, the way they have gone about this affair from the beginning may have soured support for her and would likely have damaged her effectiveness as Governor had she won.  If she would have lost the manual recount, the damage to any future run for political office would probably have been irreparable.  Also, the recent national attention this race has gotten, from Old Media to the New Media, may have served to shed light into a dark place.

Well, she could shock me yet again, and raise the money to press on, but at this point on Thursday evening, the evening before the deadline to order the manual recount, I doubt it.

Ann Coulter on Florida Vote Fraud

Here at DBPJs, we could have permanent blog material just by promoting Ann Coulter.  She cuts to the quick. It's what we love about her, and what liberals hate.

In her latest column, she gets to the bottom of these projected Democrat accusations of fraud in Florida, touted mainly by MSNBC and Keith Olbermann.  Here's my favorite line, but be sure to read the whole thing.

Most of them probably don't even realize they're registered as Democrats. These people are Democrats like Kevin Phillips is a Republican, like Ashlee Simpson is a singer.

See?