<![CDATA[Well, here in the great state of Washington, we seem to have a governor, at last. Christine Gregoire, the Democratic candidate, won the hand recount, which included ballots that were genuine and had not been counted before, by 130 votes. The first count, immediately after the election, showed Republican Dino Rossi, ahead by 261 votes. The second, a machine recount, had Rossi ahead by 42 votes.
The current count was the first conducted by people. Now, machines are all well and good, but in a democracy the decision of the people should be decided by people. Hundreds of election officials and volunteers have counted all 2.9+ million ballots by hand. Rossi lost and after waging a pretty dirty campaign against Gregoire, accusing her of a variety of misdeeds, is pledging to work to prevent Gregoire from taking office.
Dino Rossi’s statement alleged the election was crooked and now Republicans are looking for more votes:
“I’m very concerned about he integrity of the election process. I know many Washingtonians are hoping this will end soon, but I’m also sure that people across this state want a clean election and a legitimate governor-elect. At this point, we have neither.”
Now, Republicans are outraged and calling for more counts after fighting every count before. Ironically, the votes that placed Gregoire (relatively) well ahead of Rossi, have been sitting and waiting to be counted, it’s not like they were found somewhere by surprise, but that is what Republicans now seek: Votes that come from nowhere.
If the people have finally counted the votes and the votes add up to a win, then there is a legitimately elected governor. But the Republicans vow to “fight on” after vowing to fight votes, is pure hypocrisy.]]>