The Senescent Man

Just moments ago, Brian Crouch from Sound Politics was blogging directly from the Rossi Campaign Press Room announcing a challenge Rossi is initiating (at last) for the governorship of Washington state (HT Powerpundit).

Here is the blow by blow:

Governor-elect Dino Rossi, standing before a sign reading "Every vote should have a voter," just announced that his campaign will be contesting the election results.

He said that this state must have a re-vote, under any circumstances, even if the illegitimate ballots are thrown out by the courts, and overturn the election results. He would not want to accept office with a "cloud over his head." Thus, a re-vote is the only way to be sure of a legitimate victory--the only "remedy."

This will be filed under the RCW 29.8.68 statute that allows the Courts to set aside an election when the number of votes in question exceeds the margin of victory.

As I write this, Harry Corel, attorney for the Rossi campaign, is speaking on the specific categories of the ballots in question: felons voting, dead people voting, people voting more than once, and unregistered voters. (I am in the Campaign press room).

UPDATE: Slade Gorton is speaking now. He says this is an invalid election: a court might negate the ballots in question, and award Rossi the win. However this will not remove the mess. A revote is not without precedent: it happened in Adams County in WA, and happened this year in North Carolina.

I'm going to listen to the reporters groan and ask questions: stand by.

UPDATE 2: Got back to the room in time to hear Martha Modine from the New Tribune ask, "Dino, some of these felons and dead votes have been in fact votes for you. Are votes for you not part of this problem?" He replied that he was concerned about every vote, and whether some of these were for him was not relevant to whether the process was flawed. Her follo-up: "Will you be showing up at the governor's ball after the inauguration?"

UPDATE 3: I think Rossi hit all the right points in this conference. "We've found that some people have remained politically active even after they died."

He's not contesting a true "victory," he's contesting an erroneous certification of Gregoire.

UPDATE 4: Perusing the news sites, I see a consistent error. Rossi et al are not alleging any systemic fraud, or any concerted deliberate plan to steal the election by King County, they are citing evidence of illegitimate and unaccountable votes, errors, and individual fraudulent activity. The media, in general are saying, "they allege no fraud," which is something quite different.