It seems Washington state GOP chair Chris Vance isn't always opposed to recounts, as he is now in the governor's race between Republican Dino Rossi and Democrat Christine Gregoire.
Rossi currently holds a 42 vote lead out of 2.8 million ballots cast, pending the manual recount requested by Gregoire and provided for in state law.
But Vance requested recounts in Snohomish County for two state legislative races in 2002 after problems counting absentee ballots became apparent.
County auditor seeks recount after votes missed
Published: Friday, December 13, 2002
Snohomish County Auditor Bob Terwilliger is seeking legal grounds to ask for a recount of all absentee ballots in the 1st and 38th legislative districts.
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Under state law, the requesting party must pay for a recount. On Dec. 6, state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance called for a recount. (bold added)
And Vance was well within his legal and ethical rights to do so, as, according to the article, there did appear to be real problems with the vote scanning machines.
But now the Republicans are engaging in flame-thrower rhetoric:
Democrats will finance a statewide hand recount
Rossi's campaign accused the Democrats of trying to steal the election. "As far as we're concerned, it's trying to overturn the legitimate result of this election by any means necessary, ethical or not," Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane said. "Christine Gregoire cares more about her own political ambition than what the voters actually think."
Vance gets into the act too:
Democrats call for statewide recount
"It's outrageous," said state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance. "The Democrats are flat out trying to steal this election by changing the rules."
But as recently as a few weeks ago, Vance appeared willing to go to court or use a manual recount to help Rossi. Consider this Nov. 19 statement by Vance:
State gets ready for recount
"We're going to have observers everywhere, and we're not going to hesitate to go to court if we think there's something going wrong," said Chris Vance, chairman of the state Republican Party.
As for whether he'd demand a recount of ballots by hand, Vance said that's a matter of "crossing that bridge when we come to it."
He added: "We are prepared to do anything and everything necessary to protect our interest in this."
Cleary the Republicans are trying to whip up the lumpenproletariat in order to create more controversy and delegitimize a Gregoire victory.
Vance is behaving in a thoroughly irresponsible fashion. He knows darn well that the GOP would do the same thing Gregoire is doing, and as much as said so in November.