Washington State had its own controversial election in 2004 where Dino Rossi was announced the winner with 261 more votes than Democratic challenger Christine Gregoire. According to Washington State Law, a mandatory machine recount is done if the candidates differ in margin by 150 to 2,000 votes and a mandatory manual recount is done if the difference is less than 150 votes. After this recount, the gap narrowed to a 42 vote difference. After the manual recount the decision was REVERSED. Gregoire took a 133 vote lead and Rossi did not want to challenge further. These new recounts included ballots that were previously thrown out and recently "found" ballots in places like mail bags or inside envelopes.
The problems faced in our Gubernatorial election were met with serious election reform and overhaul. With the help of HAVA funding, the Washington State Secretary of State's Office is now on the cutting edge of election reform with things like:
Online Voter Registration Database
Statewide Guidelines for What Counts as a Vote
Only Absentee Voting Statewide (with the exception of one county)
and hopefully in the future Overseas Military Voting Via Internet
Just a quick plug for my home state that rarely gets national political attention.
No comments:
Post a Comment