Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Governor race could wind up in court---Justices could decide by Friday

"On Friday, state Democrats filed a lawsuit insisting that Reed must instruct county election officials to review all ballots previously deemed invalid. Democrats contend that election boards have no consistent standard for disqualifying ballots. The varying standard essentially disenfranchised some voters based on the particular county they cast their ballot in, Democrats say."-get the full Seattle P-I story. In "Party faithful to tally ballots," the Seattle Times takes a look at a different side of the court battle. "Each party representative will be paired with a representative of the other party. The county will supply a "tabulator" to form a three-person "recount board." Each team will be responsible for hand counting an average of 11,000 ballots....the Democratic Party objects to the system. In a lawsuit filed with the state Supreme Court challenging the state's plans for a recount, the party argues that activists can't count votes and be effective observers at the same time. The system "will prevent meaningful participation by party 'witnesses' in the hand recount," the suit says." Update: "Westchester County Disenfranchisement Campaign"-from the Blog for America; sound familiar?

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