Former Secretary of State pushes for new vote [Washington's governer race]

[AnIndependentTexan]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002122517_recount17m.html

Friday, December 17, 2004 - Page updated at 12:39 A.M.


Former Secretary of State pushes for new vote

By Ralph Thomas

Seattle Times Olympia bureau

Former Secretary of State Ralph Munro, a key supporter of Republican Dino Rossi during the contentious recounts in Washington's race for governor, says it may be time to toss out all of the votes and do the election over.
Munro, who oversaw the state's elections system for 20 years before retiring in 2000, said a new vote is probably the only way to restore voter confidence and get a clear winner.

His comments came as the state Republican Party prepared to file a lawsuit against King County seeking to stop the county's recount, and votes reported from Snohomish County further tightened the race between Rossi and Democrat Christine Gregoire.

"This thing could just degenerate and spiral downward," Munro said yesterday. "Whoever eventually becomes governor is going to have a very hard time governing, and we're going to go through four years of flopping around."

He suggested allowing new voter registrations for a few weeks, then holding a new election in February.

Democrats scoffed at the proposal, saying Republicans were raising it only because Rossi's whisker-thin lead appears in jeopardy.

"Last week the Republicans were saying we need to resolve this as quickly as possible," Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said. "This week they're saying we need another election."

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. What's good for Washington is good for Ohio

throw that back at the hypocrites.

[life_long_dem]

2. Maybe they have the updated version of the vote stealing software.

These repukes will stop at nothing, will they?

Thanks for the link AIT.

[SeattleRob]

3. Not surprsing

Of course the Repubs want a new vote - because they know when all of the original votes are counted, their candidate will lose.

[Verve]

4. His statement can be generalized to the presidency:

"Whoever eventually becomes governor is going to have a very hard time governing, and we're going to go through four years of flopping around."

Hasn't the whole nation been flopping around since 2000? If the president can flop around, I think the governor can too.

[VTGold]

5. YES! "new registration and then new election" we can use that!

[dewaldd]

7. give them time for old-fashioned voter fraud via fake registrations

[IndyOp]

6. The Dems should NOT be scoffing at this!

We know that the higher turnout is in any election the more likely it is that Dems will win and turnout will be incredibly high for a re-vote in this match! It would make clear that Gregoire is the winner and she could be effective.

:kick: