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Bloggers Expose Washington State Election Anomalies

State Republicans have filed a lawsuit contesting the results of the extremely close governor's election. Democratic Christine Gregoire won a hand recount by 129 votes out of nearly 2.9-million ballots over Dino Rossi. He came out with more more votes on Election Day and in a machine recount.

John Fund writes about the influential role bloggers have had in changing the public's perception of the election through online publishing of election errors [HT: PrestoPundit] His column notes that,

A stolen election in Washington state? Not if bloggers can help it... Even liberal officeholders in Seattle privately acknowledge that the combination of bloggers, talk radio and local think tanks like the Evergreen Freedom Foundation have helped skeptics of the election's validity win the public relations war.

In his new book, "Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation," radio host and law professor Hugh Hewitt calls the new media a form of "open-source journalism" in which gatekeepers can no longer control what reaches the public. Readers and listeners interact with bloggers and talk show hosts so that a free market of ideas and information can emerge. "Blogs analyzed the Washington state election shenanigans in a more sophisticated and comprehensive way than the mainstream media," he told me. "When a swarm of blogs and new media focus on a story it can fundamentally alter the general public's understanding of an event or person. Ask John Kerry, Trent Lott, Tom Daschle and soon-to-retire CBS anchor Dan Rather if they think the new media changed people's perceptions of them."

The work of bloggers and other alternate information sources was not difficult. They merely pointied out the numerous anamolies, errors and instances of fraud that would have otherwise been unreported:

At least 1,200 more votes were counted in Seattle's King County than the number of individual voters who can be accounted for.

Votes attributed to deceased individuals and felons.

Instances of double voting.

Military personnel who were sent their absentee ballots too late to return.

One out of twenty ballots in King County that officials felt were marked unclearly were "enhanced" with Wite-Out or pens so that some had their original markings obliterated.

At least 348 unverified provisional ballots were fed directly into vote-counting machines.

In a Seattle precinct, 527, or 70%, of the 763 registered voters used 500 Fourth Avenue--the King County administration building--as their residential address. A full 61% of the precinct's voters only registered in the last year, and nearly all of them "live" at 500 Fourth Avenue. By contrast, only 13% of all of King County voters registered in 2004.

The possibility of a revote was remote, and is still unlikely, however, the role of the new media is growing and the establishment has taken note.

More at BlogsforBush, , SoundPolitics, , Captain's Quarters, Powerline

Posted by tim at January 9, 2005 11:21 PM

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