King County: We'll Get it Right -- Next Time

Aren't these King County officials hilarious? They promise they'll clean up their acts, eventually.

But of course, it's far too late for the November 2004 election they botched, handing the governorship wrongly to Democrat Christine Gregoire.


(Seattle Times)

King County Elections Director Dean Logan has added another item to his to-do list for future elections: making sure the votes of armed-forces members and other Americans overseas are counted if they specify a choice of political party but not a candidate's name.

Logan said he would look at how the county handled federal mail-in ballots in the Nov. 2 election after two Republican Party observers said they saw election workers fail to count the votes of some overseas voters who tried to vote by party.

The two Republicans watched workers duplicate nonstandard ballots at the county's Mail Ballot Operations Site south of downtown Seattle the week of Nov. 17.

Among more than 500,000 absentee ballots were 1,081 federal write-in ballots issued to Americans overseas by embassies, consulates and military voting-assistance officers.

Meanwhile, today is the big day in Chelan County, where the GOP's challenge to the stolen election will first be heard. No matter what the decision, it's sure to be appealed to the Washington State Supreme Court. But what is said in the courtroom and the decision rendered could give us some idea of what we can expect to be used in the appeal. Also, this judge has previously voided a contested election.