E-Z-B
CAGiversary!
Rossi will not appeal election ruling
ELAINE THOMPSON / AP
WENATCHEE — Judge John Bridges today upheld the election of Gov. Christine Gregoire, dismissing a Republican lawsuit and so soundly rejecting the party's claims that Dino Rossi said he would not go forward with what had been seen as an inevitable appeal.
Rossi said because the "political makeup of the Washington Supreme Court" makes it "almost impossible to overturn this ruling, I am ending this election contest."
Bridges said Republicans did not meet the burden of proof for nullifying an election.
The decision in the historic election challenge came after six months of legal work and two weeks of trial. It let stand, at least until a possible appeal to the state Supreme Court, Democrat Gregoire's record-tight 129-vote victory over Republican Rossi, a real estate agent and former state senator.
In a ruling that took nearly one hour to read, Bridges said he saw no evidence of fraud and rejected Republicans' proposed method for apportioning illegal votes. And he went further, saying Gregoire would have won even if he had applied the Republican theory of subtracting illegal votes from each candidate.
He said the Republicans' proposed method of proportional deduction was not based on sound science. The method would have subtracted illegal felon votes from both candidates' vote totals, dividing them in any given precinct by the same percentage as the overall vote in that precinct.
"An election such as this should not be overturned because one judge picks a number and applies a proportional deduction analysis," Bridges said. "To do so within the context of the facts of this case would constitute the ultimate act of judicial egotism and judicial activism."
After the verdict, Republicans said they have not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling, even though they had said before that an appeal was certain.
They have 10 days under the law to appeal.
Democrats said they didn't think they lost a single argument.
"I think it was a resounding rejection of every one of the Republican claims," said Democratic attorney Jenny Durkan.
"They chose the county, they chose the court, they chose the method of proof," meaning the proportional deduction analysis.
"There is no corner for them to run to in that decision."
Still, Bridges did not apportion the vast majority of illegal votes to any candidate. The only votes he did subtract from any candidate were five that had been proven by Democrats, through depositions taken from the voters themselves. Of those five, four had voted for Rossi and one for Libertarian Ruth Bennett.
And the republicans called Gore a sore loser. So what does that make him?
I like this statement: Rossi said because the "political makeup of the Washington Supreme Court" makes it "almost impossible to overturn this ruling, I am ending this election contest." --- That means that if the republicans couldn't win in a red county, they sure can't win anywhere else.
GET OVER IT!
ELAINE THOMPSON / AP
WENATCHEE — Judge John Bridges today upheld the election of Gov. Christine Gregoire, dismissing a Republican lawsuit and so soundly rejecting the party's claims that Dino Rossi said he would not go forward with what had been seen as an inevitable appeal.
Rossi said because the "political makeup of the Washington Supreme Court" makes it "almost impossible to overturn this ruling, I am ending this election contest."
Bridges said Republicans did not meet the burden of proof for nullifying an election.
The decision in the historic election challenge came after six months of legal work and two weeks of trial. It let stand, at least until a possible appeal to the state Supreme Court, Democrat Gregoire's record-tight 129-vote victory over Republican Rossi, a real estate agent and former state senator.
In a ruling that took nearly one hour to read, Bridges said he saw no evidence of fraud and rejected Republicans' proposed method for apportioning illegal votes. And he went further, saying Gregoire would have won even if he had applied the Republican theory of subtracting illegal votes from each candidate.
He said the Republicans' proposed method of proportional deduction was not based on sound science. The method would have subtracted illegal felon votes from both candidates' vote totals, dividing them in any given precinct by the same percentage as the overall vote in that precinct.
"An election such as this should not be overturned because one judge picks a number and applies a proportional deduction analysis," Bridges said. "To do so within the context of the facts of this case would constitute the ultimate act of judicial egotism and judicial activism."
After the verdict, Republicans said they have not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling, even though they had said before that an appeal was certain.
They have 10 days under the law to appeal.
Democrats said they didn't think they lost a single argument.
"I think it was a resounding rejection of every one of the Republican claims," said Democratic attorney Jenny Durkan.
"They chose the county, they chose the court, they chose the method of proof," meaning the proportional deduction analysis.
"There is no corner for them to run to in that decision."
Still, Bridges did not apportion the vast majority of illegal votes to any candidate. The only votes he did subtract from any candidate were five that had been proven by Democrats, through depositions taken from the voters themselves. Of those five, four had voted for Rossi and one for Libertarian Ruth Bennett.
And the republicans called Gore a sore loser. So what does that make him?
I like this statement: Rossi said because the "political makeup of the Washington Supreme Court" makes it "almost impossible to overturn this ruling, I am ending this election contest." --- That means that if the republicans couldn't win in a red county, they sure can't win anywhere else.
GET OVER IT!
