King Kounty: Klumsy or Korrupt?

If the power of precedent comes anywhere near this lonely oasis we call Western Washington, then God help us all! Have you ever seen anything so sickening as this absurd game the election officials are playing in King County? Every day (literally) they "find" more unsecured, uncounted ballots! You tell me which is worse: the clumsy theory or the corruption theory? There are just no other options and both options should be driving every sane citizen to one slogan: DON'T CHANGE THE RULES!

It's time to unleash the power of the blogosphere! The last couple days have brought some good denunciations of the shenanigans from out-of-state blogs. How much more should the Washington blogs be pounding the King election [oaf]ficial's antics.

I know I keep referring to election officials as the problem, while most partisan GOPers are taking aim at the Gregoire Grinches and Democrats. I do this because we all expected the dems to display this level of childishness--we've seen it before, so why should anyone be surprised. The problem is the people who let them get away with it. Yes, and sometimes they are one and the same!

The latest analysis and news

Professor Stephen Bainbridge from UCLA wrote a stinging piece today in response to the continual stream of uncounted ballots--or what, maybe the bottomless bucket of ballots (sorry, I'm on a massive alliteration high--I've got more). Considering that this is a man who has probably seen it all and he sees a problem here, yeah, I think we have a problem!

In the MSM:

The Washington Post noted the seriousness of the original "findings" of 561 uncounted absentees.

The hand count, which has been going on for a week, had slightly widened Rossi's lead until Monday, when the elections director in King County, which includes Seattle and is the state's largest county, discovered a potentially election-swinging foul-up.

Because of a data entry error, the official said, 561 absentee ballots had not been counted. If those votes swing for Gregoire at the same 58-40 rate as the rest of the votes in the strongly Democratic county did, Monday's find could give her as many as 101 new votes -- a relative landslide, given the closeness of the race.

The AP today told the story of the newer set of uncounted ballots. Total: 723.

And finally, there is the not so clear coverage by the two leading newspapers from--you guessed it--Seattle in King County (keeping that connection firmly in our head).

The Seattle PI is portraying State Republican Party Chairman, Chris Vance in a pretty negative light in this news piece. Either Vance is not focusing the rule-changing aspect as he should, or the only statements the press is reporting are his allegations of suspicious circumstances. Even though these allegation are not far-fetched at all, I think Vance should be focusing on the basic principle: don't make rules as you go; don't change the rules as you go.

The Seattle Times reports in detail about the new 150 ballots:

While observers from three political parties and a phalanx of television camera crews watched, election workers opened a locked cage in a warehouse and pulled out a cart containing trays of rejected absentee ballots.

Within minutes they found 150 of the ballots they were looking for in sealed envelopes in a tray with other rejected ballots. They were placed in a box, sealed, and taken to the King County Administration Building.

Back to the blogosphere in conclusion

Captain's Quarters (dot com) did a good piece today which also covers the new call for a REVOTE! Yes, this is an idea which is appealing to many conservatives because they don't see any result from the current trend of counting to be considered valid enough to produce a legitimate winner.

*sigh*

I'll have to give that some thought. I'm far from repulsed by the idea. Perhaps there's something to it.