Manufacturing Votes in King County?
As Republicans are trying any and every argument that they can create to help salve their pain of losing the race for Governor, they seem to keep landing on the idea that the big, bad and corrupt King County Elections Division just kept “finding votes,” padding the totals, until finally, they had enough to “coronate” Christine Gregoire as Governor.
Listening to this screed all day made me wonder: Did King County add more votes to their final tally than did other counties? If I just accept the wailing from Republicans, I’d be left with the impression that King County must have, by magnitudes, found more votes than any other county.
Well…I decided to run the numbers. And guess what? King County wasn’t the lead vote finder. Nor were they second. Or third. Or even fourth, fifth or sixth. Nope. The top six counties to add votes to their final tallies were counties that Dino Rossi won.
King County tied for 7th place in percentage of total votes added to their final tally. Here are the top 10 Counties, listed in order of percentage of votes added to the final tally compared to the original count in each of these counties:
County | First Count | Third Count | Difference | % Difference | |
1 | Adams | 5,055 | 5,091 | 36 | 0.71% |
2 | Walla Walla | 22,563 | 22,676 | 113 | 0.50% |
3 | Pierce | 309,630 | 310,591 | 961 | 0.31% |
4 | Kittitas | 15,922 | 15,969 | 47 | 0.30% |
5 | Skagit | 51,590 | 51,733 | 143 | 0.28% |
6 | Grant | 25,719 | 25,787 | 68 | 0.26% |
7 | King | 874,928 | 876,452 | 1,524 | 0.17% |
8 | Asotin | 8,622 | 8,637 | 15 | 0.17% |
9 | Franklin | 15,812 | 15,838 | 26 | 0.16% |
10 | Pend Oreille | 6,104 | 6,114 | 10 | 0.16% |
If the Republicans have evidence of fraud, then let them make their case. But, if they don’t, then this not-so-veiled charge of fraud should cease.
King County was not manufacturing votes. The votes that the Republicans are clamoring about were legitimately cast, legal votes. To argue that King County should not have counted them is odd in a democratic election where legal votes are ALL that matters.
Is that what we’ve come to? In an effort to win at any cost, the Republicans are going to argue that King County shouldn’t have counted legal votes?
Shameful.