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Bayham on the Bayou: Dems: Keep Recounting Until We Win by Mike Bayham Lousisana (HNN) -- When it comes to ballot integrity, I am a supreme pessimist. Witnessing the way New Orleans conducts its elections and how one race in particular was blatantly stolen from a Republican U.S. Senate candidate shaped my dour attitude. But I am not alone. Several weeks ago I was talking with a likeminded friend about the Washington state gubernatorial election and its razor-tight margin that initially showed a Republican victory. But the conversation never went as far as talking about what the new Republican governor would do in office as my friend blandly commented, "They're going to steal this one before it is all said and done." I concurred and the discussion shifted to how many mystery votes were going to be unearthed in heavily Democratic King County in order to put the "loser" in office. Sadly enough, that is precisely how things played out in Washington state, better named "The Ukraine of the Northwest", as satchels of votes conveniently appeared which, surprise, allowed the Democratic Attorney General Christine Gregoire to be certified as governor in the third recount after the first two showed that Republican Dino Rossi had won with pluralities of 261 and 43 respectively. I do not blame the Democrats for wanting a recount after the first results were tabulated, as any assortment of errors could have shifted the decision. However after the second canvass showed that Rossi was still ahead, the proper thing to do would have been to throw in the towel. Instead, the Washington State Democrats used the recounts to buy enough time to develop strategies on "ballot reinterpretation" that would benefit Gregoire. A flustered Rossi, who had enjoyed the title "Governor-elect" between the second and third recounts, claimed that the will of the people was no longer discernable from the since "processed" November gubernatorial contest and is demanding a revote. The most potent argument the Rossi camp has is that 8,400 more votes were cast than there were documented voters, well exceeding the difference between the two main candidates, though the state sheepishly says they can explain this discrepancy. But obviously, the problems are not just limited to the apparent over-vote. Going back to the second recount, there have been reports of "ballot altering" by King County election officials to help make clearer the intentions of voters whose ballots were ambiguous. Needless to say in the Democratic bastion of Seattle, such chicanery assisted Gregoire further chip away at Rossi's lead. Prior to the third recount over 500 missing ballots were discovered that ended up closing the 43 deficit putting Gregoire over the top and throwing election scruples out of the window. What stuns me the most in all of this is not the audacity of the Democrats, who lack any sense of shame when it comes to trying to win an election after the votes are counted against them, but how any community in the United States could tolerate such haphazard way of handling ballots. Even if all of the Gregoire additions were legitimate, an IF the size of Mount Rainier, a number of election officials failed to perform their duties properly given the amount of ballots not properly secured and timely tabulated. Yet the one common thread that links the Washington state electoral shenanigans with those of Detroit and other locales where the sacredness of the ballot is violated is the lack of criminal prosecution or even the dismissal of these people whose only excuse is "oops". You can bet that the soon to be ex-Attorney General is not going to be hot on the trail of these butterfingers. There is in fact no difference between vote suppression, the mostly imaginary phenomena that professional liberal agitators like Jesse Jackson claims that happens in Republican victories, and vote fraud. One indirectly taints the process by preventing a segment of the electorate from having their voice heard while the other more practiced activity takes away the value of valid votes and undermines our confidence in elections, affecting participation. It is a sickening irony that the top law enforcer in Washington state will have advanced to governor based upon an election that irreparably tainted by fraud and that her only response to sound GOP protests is a glib comment that "this isn't golf". Thousands of miles away in what was once part of the Soviet Union people disgruntled over a stolen election succeeded in securing justice that appears elusive in the northwest corner of the planet's great democratic republic. Mike Bayham is author of the book, Right From The Bayou: The Opinions of a Conservative Cajun, which is available at iUniverse.com. |