WA: Stolen Race Finally Getting National Attention?

Finally, months later, the stolen Washington State governor's race seems to be getting the national attention it needs to keep the political momentum behind the objection alive.

What happens in a Chelan County, Wash., courtroom is one thing, equally important is public perception. Seattle's newspapers are busy making Gregoire appear to be legitimate, these pieces help to counter that effort.

While it has been an intermittent topic in conservative publications since November, with varying levels of understanding of the situation, it is often ignored by daily mainstream publications. OpinionJournal.com is wonderful and widely read, but not enough by itself.

Does the New York Post qualify as mainstream? It's close enough. This is a boost for the cause, there is no doubt. The Post's editors do a good job getting to the essence of the problem with brevity. That's not easy to do and may be one reason why it hasn't had the national attention it requires.

Sometimes it seems to take twice as long for such stories of political intrigue to get the attention of eastern media outlets as would issues closer to home. Certainly you'll hear a lot more about the New Jersey governorship flaps than Washington State and yet they are both just as compelling.

Seattle is a distant outpost to these people and to a point that's understandable.

But it certainly means that Washington State activists need to be that much noisier to keep their issue at the forefront. It takes a national campaign to focus enough attention on the problem. It's easy for the RNC to forget about it as well if it isn't in the publications they read inside the Beltway.



Anyway, a big thanks to the New York Post for the editorial:

Count every vote?

That's what Angry Left Democrats have been demanding ever since the bitterly contested Florida presidential balloting in 2000 — and, more recently, the top-of-the-ticket jousting in Ohio.

The Angries had better be careful, though: Counting every vote may not work in their favor.

Take, for example, last year's hyper-contentious gubernatorial race in Washington state.

One would think that almost four months after Election Day, and seven weeks after a swearing-in ceremony, the true outcome of that contest would be clear.

It isn't.

The Washington governor's race is still very much in question.

Even though Democrat Christine Gregoire took the oath of office last month, a judge has decided to grant Republican Dino Rossi — the man declared the Election Day victor — a day in court.

Rossi is seeking to nullify the election based on suspicious voting tabulations, primarily in King County (which contains Seattle).

Rossi's initial 261-vote margin dropped to 42 following a state-required machine-run recount. In late December, following a Democratic Party-paid hand recount, Gregoire "won" by 129 votes.

Between the two recounts, King County "found" more than 700 ballots officials claim were wrongly rejected. They are included in the recount.

* The person in charge of King County ballot integrity, a Democratic political appointee, can't explain why there are 1,800 more votes "cast" than there are people who actually voted.

* More than 100 provisional ballots were tossed into the election machines before they were certified as legitimate.

* An estimated 1,109 convicted felons, — all ineligible to vote, — illegally cast ballots in the election. Of these, 884 were in heavily Democratic King County.

It will be several weeks before the case is heard, but if Rossi is successful, Gregoire would be forced to step down and a new election called.

(Tip from OrbusMax)