I just read about that governor election. I bet you guys in Washington were very confused for awhile.
Anyway, the problem started from absentee ballots being denied by voting machines.
"King County Council Chairman Larry Phillips was at a Democratic Party office in Seattle on Sunday December 12, reviewing a list of voters whose absentee votes had been rejected due to signature problems, when to his surprise he found his own name listed."
This caused a machine recount and then a manual recount. I think this was well justified. People's votes were not being counted and they should have been. This is another example of failing voting machines. Get rid of them!
After the necessary recounts, Gregoire won, and rightfully so. The majority of the votes were in her favor.
I found information about the felons votes.
"A substantial number of the felon-voters were convicted as juveniles and
were legally permitted to vote. Conservative columnists suggested that felons were more likely to vote for Gregoire, but most of the felon-voters resided in counties won by Rossi"
Totally legal!
After testimony by some of the "unlawful" voting felons, it turns out that they voted for Rossi! What is amusing to me is that the Republicans brought about this lawsuit! It caused votes to be taken away from the Republican candidate.
"Bridges also removed five votes from the final count after receiving testimony from convicted felons who had voted: four for Rossi and one for Ruth Bennett. No evidence was brought before the court of anyone illegally voting for Gregoire."
"The judge admitted nearly every piece of evidence the Republican Party offered and then wrote a thorough, tough opinion rejecting the Republicans' claims"
I found nothing to suggest that dead people's votes were counted. If they were, they probably would have voted Republican because they have more in common.... death! :rofl (just kidding Navy)
Gregoire won fair and square.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_gubernatorial_election,_2004
