Judge denies request that some King County ballots not be counted

[Zorra]

SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge on Sunday denied the state Republican Party's bid to force one of the state's most heavily Democratic counties to stop counting some ballots in the recount of the extremely close race for governor.

In a conference call with lawyers, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman denied the GOP's request for a temporary restraining order barring King County from hand-counting ballots that optical scanning machines reject because they can't be read electronically.
snip-----
State Democratic Party chairman Paul Berendt praised the judge's ruling as "a good decision."

"It's good for voters because it's consistent with the standard we would like to see — that every vote be counted," Berendt said.

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/washingtonstate/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1101087543145400.xml&storylist=orwashington

Yay, Democrats! Democrats good, republicans evil.

[Eric J in MN]

1. The Republican position is against common sense.

The Republicans are saying that if an election official can see that a candidate is selected and a machine can't, then the machine should be followed.

[Zorra]

4. Eric, I strongly suspect that this does not surprise you in the least.

When was the last time a republican did anything within the realm of common sense?

Maybe when Jim Jeffords became an independent?

[Lefta Dissenter]

2. after working for 15 hours with those optical scanners,

I've seen that a tiny little SPECK of a stray mark can cause the machine to reject the ballot. All of these lovely completed arrows, indicating voter intent, and then even if someone dropped a pencil in the wrong spot, it could cause the ballot to be popped back out.

If the voter is there, casting his own ballot, the problem can be resolved on the spot. It's the absentee ballots that leave the decision in the hands of the 'officials.' DAMN those people who want to disenfranchise the voters!!! x(

[gristy]

3. this is good news

But it was posted earlier. Discuss here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1010967