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Democrat Certified Winner in WA Governor Race
Washington's secretary of state certified the result of the hand recount (the third count) in the governor's race, reversing the first two results -- which Republican Dino Rossi had won -- and making Democrat Christine Gregoire the election's second governor-elect, by 129 votes out of 2.9 million. The inauguration is January 12. Predictably, the two sides have switched arguments, too, with the Democrats saying Rossi should concede and the Republicans saying they have a duty to make sure the will of the people is followed. The next step may be an election contest, which could take months, and result in a court awarding the victory to a candidate, nullifying the entire election, or sending the matter to the legislature. Rossi is calling for the legislature to pass a special law calling for a new election, which would bypass a contest procedure.
...they should have to pick two new candidates. Clearly neither of these two have sufficient support. Why bother running another deadlocked election?
We had an election under the laws as they stand. We followed the law and ended up with a result.
Yes, and the law is still being followed. This is where your political bias is providing for you a significant mental block. The rules, the law, is still being followed.
On what grounds could the leg possibly step in or Rossi contest the election?
I can't speak to the legislature stepping in, but rest assured, if it happened, it would be on reasonable legal grounds.
As to the contest: that is perfectly obvious. Hell, we've seen more than 129 examples of military people who didn't get their absentee ballots in time, and there are other forms of problems too, such as the counties who did not re-consider ballots with signature problems as King County did, which means their votes were not treated equally.
Legally he might contest or beg for a mulligan to be granted, but pragmatically you have to agree he should use this loss as a jumping off point for his next campaign.
If he had not won the first count and first recount, I would agree. But as he did, no, I don't agree at all with this. In every poll I've seen, the majority of people said Gregoire should concede, by a good margin, and even now, a significant number are saying they don't see Gregoire as legitimate (might even be a majority).
See, its called irony. When you stoop to simple insults one would say your reaction is stunning if it wasn't so predictable, which considering the particular insult, also makes your reaction hypocritical. But this may also make the person to respond to you hypocritical if it was said in an insulting way.
Declining to sign the affidavit of a voter isn't exactly the same thing as having an election worker not properly verify ones signiture is it? Well Rossi thinks it is. And, as has already been noted in the news, many of the smaller counties did, as part of their recounts, exactly what the republicans sued to keep king county from doing.
Rossi's view is thus: For the good of the state, a candidate should conceed if they if their opponent leads them by at least 42 votes, unless their opponent is a democrat, even if that person is leading them by a margin which is not only 3 times greater, but one which stataticians would have more confidence in. That's hypocrisy. Gregiore has always said the system should run it's course. And it will. Even the Republican observers have commented that they haven't found the widespread incompetence and malfesence nessecary to stand a chance of invalidating the election. Thus Rossi's plea for a new election on the grounds that they're just more fun.
There's just a small part of the republican party in washington, and they're willing to do all the things they decry, and profess to abhore. It's fine to do whatever you can get away with integrity be damned, it's the new American way, and it doesn't know party lines. But if through some delusional sense of fairness you think that the people should be precluded from calling them on their bullshit, and everyone who goes along with it, you've had enough, and you shouldn't be driving.
If 42 votes with a higher margin of error is good enough for the republicans, 129 with tighter tolerances should be better. (Nice to see you invoking the "ad populum" argument I've seen you decry previously though.) But I'll tell you what, if the Republicans want to pay for all the costs of the new election and holding the old government over, and any costs associated with a much accelerated establishment of the new kids on the block. Hell, I'm all for it. Because when it comes to King county, all the red counties will be obviated again. We don't vote by the acre, get past it, or give up. Enjoy the final few weeks of futility, it should be quite the emasculating spectical.
And on the absentee ballots.... King county sent them out in plenty of time. I'd already voted two weeks before the election, I'm a procrastinator and enjoying my first year in the new house. They send those out in big bunches, and the county isn't responsible for delivery.
I tell you what though, Sam Reed did a magnificent job, especially considering the amount of stress he much have been under. His calm, professionalism, and dare I say love of government, was exactly what the process needed. To bad there isn't a little more of it. He deserves all the accolades that might come his way.