While it is certainly good news that Christine Gregoire appears to have triumphed in Washington, early indications are that the state GOP is now going to charge that many military ballots were wrongly rejected.
Earlier tonight, The Washington State Republican Website asked for people to report instances of military members whose votes were not counted.
The Republicans are trying to frame the issue by saying that it's not fair to have military ballots mistakenly excluded, and allow the King County ballots to count.
Obviously, it's a GOP ploy to create cover for them to continue fighting in court and in the Legislature.
I have googled around a bit, and these GOP claims about rejected military ballots appear to have surfaced in the last 24 hours or so in Freeperland. Have not found anything with a link, of course. But it's already making its way into the SCLM.
Below the fold is a (cleaned up) version of a post I wrote for my tiny blog, Columbian Watch.
Sickening and cynical
So the Washington state GOP is suddenly all concerned about military voters.
Democrats cheer, GOP growls at latest chapter in recount saga
Lane and state GOP Chairman Chris Vance said the party planned to go all over the state asking canvassing boards to take another look at ballots the party believes were erroneously rejected.
"If the rules are going to be changed for a select group in King County, it only seems logical that the rules are changed for everyone, including military voters overseas," Lane said.
State GOP chair Chris Vance issued the following communiqué:
Memorandum
We have received numerous accounts of Rossi voters - including members of the military serving in Iraq whose votes werent counted due to errors made by county auditors. The question must be asked, If we cant change the rules for brave men and women serving their country overseas, why should we change them for the Chairman of the King County Council?
So now that Rossi has lost, the Republicans are going to do the only thing they are really good at: mount a bogus PR campaign full of distortions in the hopes public outrage doesn't keep them out of court.
Like it needs to be said, but it is wrong if a service member does not receive a ballot on time, or if that ballot falls through any number of cracks on its way from Mosul to Washington state. It would be great if Governor Gregoire supports legislation to say, change the primary date and find other ways to help make sure military ballots get counted.
But the Republicans are simply trying to use an emotional charge in a last ditch, desperate gambit, otherwise they would have raised the issue before today. And given what has happened in Mosul, that's a pretty cynical and sickening thing to do.