Revote Lawsuit Continues Without the Counties
According to KGW, “Judge dismisses 39 counties from Wash. gov. lawsuit.”
What really happened? The judge has ruled on many items:
- The Democrats' motion to dismiss was denied.
- The Democrats' motion to declare Rossi “not a proper party” to bring suit was denied.
- The counties' motion to dismiss due to lack of timeliness was denied.
- The judge ruled that affadavits were sufficient as evidence to contest the election.
- The Democrats' motion that the case should be decided by the legislature was denied.
- The Democrats' motion to take the case to the Supreme Court immediately was also denied.
- All 39 counties and their auditors were dismissed from the case, but they are still expected to respond to any discovery order.
The press may try to spin this Gregoire's way, out of sympathy I suspect, but even that keeps the revote effort in the public eye.
Keep reading Sound Politics for more up-to-date information. I'm pretty far from the fight in Clark County.
Update: No sooner do I shut down my computer and head home than the judge in Chelan county rules that his court does not have the authority to order a revote. Democrats take this as a victory, but it just sets up the appropriate appeal to a court high enough to order such an action. The Republicans remain confident.
Here's an interesting note on the KGW story:
Should the Republicans prevail in their lawsuit, it was not immediately clear what relief might be available. In some past successful Washington state election challenges in smaller races, a judge has simply awarded victory to the challenger.
I doubt a county judge has the authority to order the state to accept Rossi as governor any more than he can order a revote. It most likely needs to hit a higher court.
Josh Poulson
Posted Friday, Feb 4 2005 04:08 PM
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