Washington Governor revote

College Confidential Community
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<p>I’m curious as to whether anyone in other parts of the country has been hearing about the whole controversy with the Washington governor’s election.</p>

<p>For those of you not aware, here’s a recap: the candidates are Gregoire and Rossi. I’m not going to say which is which party because it’s not important. In the initial count, Rossi wins by a little over 100 votes. Due to the small margin, there is an automatic recount. After the recount, Rossi leads by less than 100 votes.</p>

<p>Rossi supporters encourage the state to accept the result and move on, but Gregoire wants to push it further, so after much deliberation, she asks for a full hand recount (despite criticisms). After the hand recount, Gregoire wins by a little over 100 votes. The election was certified and she is set to be inaugurated.</p>

<p>However, following the recount, Rossi supporters start to call foul play. They attempt to contest the election in court, as well as suggesting a full revote, citing various reasons they believe the election has been unfair. Needless to say, it is now the Gregoire supporters who are saying Washington needs to move on and accept the result.</p>

<p>In any case, it’s becoming a pretty big deal now… Rossi supporters have begun airing TV commercials, and a huge campaign has begun to hold a complete revote. If this occurs, it would take place after Gregoire has already taken office.</p>

<p>Anyway, I’m curious as to whether this has been making national news, and if so whether the whole country is laughing at us. Also, even for those of you who have not heard about it, what’s your take on it?</p>

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<p>For any controversial issue, whether it be abortion or gay-rights etc…, I’m always for prevention.
If votes are cast electronically at a polling center’s machine, none of this would happen and the vote results would be availbable right away. This system needs to be implemented right away…</p>

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<p>No. It doesn’t. </p>

<p>While I am in favor or immediate results, the only way you can implement a system like this is if the electronic machines come with a printer port so that you can get a receipt of who and what you voted for in the election. Otherwise, there is mass voter fraud within the program. (This fraud happened in Ohio in the recent election when people said they saw their votes for Kerry suddenly “bounce” towards Bush.)</p>

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<p>I would like a revote, due to the fact that the margin of victory is way smaller than the margin of error, and the fact that Rossi won 2 out of the 3 recounts. The last county to announce results of that recount was King County, largely democratic. The tallies from all the other counties had come in—they knew exactly how many democratic ballots they had to come up with in order to give Gregoire the victory.</p>

<p>One thing I found funny was gregoire saying after she lost the 1st recount by 42 votes that “it is a tie” and then after she won the 2nd by 8 votes (before the counting of those disputed ballots) that “we have won”…so if you’re 42 votes behind it’s a tie, 8 votes ahead you win? weird logic. haha…</p>

<p>But then as an absentee voter I can’t do much about it…</p>

<p>I live in King County (when not at school) and voted Rossi by absentee.</p>

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<p>I think that they should hold a completely new election. The margin of victory is sooo small, that the opposition can keep arguing that a recount is needed. Neither of these candidate should be declared the winner; not yet at least.</p>

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<p>yea jaug1 you’re right. There would be even a greater controversy for voting frauds.</p>

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<p>I’ve certainly been hearing about the controversy. hope gregorie wins… can’t have any more red states. they definitely need to figure out a better voting system.</p>

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<p>I’m to the point where i think that the democrats and republicans should run two entirely new candidates and have a revote…neither Gregoire or Rossi deserve to hold office after this debacle.</p>

<p>Though I suppose the flaw isn’t really their fault, though the “We’re going to fit to the bitter end and not follow John Kerry’s lead about how to be a graceful looser” method disgusts me.</p>

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<p>Umm…im from New York…and i havent heard anything about this…</p>

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<p>Firstly, feuler I believe that you left out some important details about the recounts. The recount costed at least 25 cents a ballot, or more than $700,000 for a statewide count. The democratic party said the cost exceeded $1 million after legal bills and staff costs are added. Also, the ads on tv with the annoying beeping sound were not created by Rossi but rather a seperate organization, revotewa.com. </p>

<p>Personally, I also believe there should be a recount because the margin of victory was so small. While, another recount could come up with another small margin of victory, I believe many people would not vote for Gregoire after seeing her real attitude after the election. I think that she needs a little lesson in how to lose gracefully from John Kerry.</p>

<p>Also, with the small margin of victory I believe that the majority of people in Washington will not approve of her or her actions because she did not clearly win. It will be another Bush-Gore scenario where recounts cloud the election and scramble the results. I can only hope that Washington gets to vote again, but I realize the probability of this solution are dwindling down every moment. Even in Washington does not get to revote, I will live with Gregoire being governor for 4 years because I know that she will not be re-elected after her true colors have shown through.</p>

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<p>Thanks, zpmqxonw; I only gave a very brief summary and, I realize now, I should have specified that I lean to the left because my bias probably came through in which things I saw fit to mention.</p>

<p>My opinion on the matter is that a revote, while perhaps it makes sense in this case, sets a dangerous precedent. Elections should have finality. I can see the validity in recounts in extreme circumstances, but an entire re-vote seems absurd.</p>

<p>I guess my point is that there should be a simple process that is followed, and the results should stick. And if there are going to be protests with regrad to which votes are going to count and which aren’t, that should all be settled BEFORE the recount, or even before the initial count, so that all that remains is tallying and comparing.</p>

<p>I think it’s unfair to hold Gregoire responsible, however- all she did was use her ability to do a manual recount (for the record, I think it was the Democratic party that paid for the count, not the state… but please correct be if I’m wrong). Whether the law should have such a provision is debatable. But the point is she followed the process that had been set forth in law, not looking for legal loopholes to postpone finality until she could find a way to win.</p>

<p>I suppose, to be completely objective, I would say there should have been one recount, and it should have ended there, with Rossi’s victory, as much as I loathe the idea of a Republican governor. But I don’t blame Gregoire, I blame the law, for drawing it out further.</p>

<p>Of course, more than anything, I blame Gregoire for being such an uninspiring candidate that even such a liberal state as Washington won’t support her. And of course, Rossi, for actually being a plausible candidate, unlike previous Republicans running for that office in Washington.</p>

<p>Thanks to the conservative who have been responding to this- I get very one-sided views of these things from my peers in Seattle, and it’s refreshing to hear the other side.</p>