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Orcutt votes to hold off on
accepting result of governor's race
Rep. Ed Orcutt
is disappointed the majority party in the Legislature today ratified the
latest results of the Washington governor’s race, even though the
election outcome will be contested in court as early as next week.
“Judging from the e-mails and phone messages I’ve received, from both
Republicans and Democrats, I think citizens would have been more than
willing to wait two weeks while the facts of the election are
presented,” said Orcutt, R-Kalama.
In an historic joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives,
House Republicans made a motion to delay accepting the certified vote
count in the race between Republican Dino Rossi and Democrat Christine
Gregoire. Orcutt was among 65 legislators voting for the motion, which
failed when all but one Democrat voted against it.
“Our state Constitution
says the governor and other state executives are to be chosen by
‘qualified electors.’ Considering at least one county has acknowledged
counting ballots from unqualified electors, waiting while the judicial
branch considers the case would have been the right thing to do,” said
Orcutt. “The Legislature had an opportunity to uphold
the constitutional standard today. Instead, voting results that may not
be accurate were simply rubber-stamped.”
Orcutt disagreed with the Democrats’ argument that the Legislature
should simply accept the results as certified by the Secretary of State
and county election canvassing boards.
“The act of bringing the
results of each statewide general election before the Legislature may
seem ceremonial, but it’s really part of the system of checks and
balances in our government,” said Orcutt. “A two-week delay wouldn’t
have kept the Legislature from attending to the work we’re in Olympia to
do. It also would show the voters that we are serious about getting this
election right, and about reforming the election system to prevent
situations like this from occurring again. That’s what the people of our
state expect and deserve.
“I’m disappointed that when we needed a show of courage and patience,
all we got was partisanship.”
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For more information, contact:
Brendon Wold, Public
Information Officer: (360) 786-7698
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