More Dirty Politics From WA-GOP

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Statement on Republican attack on Michelle Obama

WASHINGTON STATE – Gov. Chris Gregoire’s statement on Republican attack ad on Michelle Obama.

“I was proud to welcome Michelle Obama, who clearly loves our country deeply, here to Washington state this morning. These shameless attacks by the state Republican Party have no place in our politics. If John McCain is serious about running a “respectful” campaign on the issues, he and Republican leaders like Dino Rossi will denounce this tasteless attack ad and tell the state Republican Party to pull the plug on it immediately. After eight years of the most divisive, fear-driven politics this country has ever seen, I agree with Senator Obama that it’s time to turn the page and bring Americans together.”

–Gov. Chris Gregoire


For more information on Gov. Chris Gregoire and her campaign, please visit www.ChrisGregoire.com.

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And who's the star of the state Republican Party attack ad? Why none other than election fraud, perjurer and chair of the King county Republicans, Lori Soleto. What a telling choice of character to face the camera and claim to be proud to be an American. Trust to the Washington Republican Party to pick someone who's idea of patriotism is rigging elections.

Lori Sotelo submitted challenges to 1,944 registered voters in King County. Ms. Sotelo is the Senior Vice Chair of the King County Republican Party and heads their “Voter Registration Integrity Project”. Challenged voters began receiving notice of their challenged status via mail on Thursday, November 3, 2005, providing little time to correct errors.

• Hundreds of the challenged voters were in fact legally registered at their physical address, and were challenged wrongly.
• Possibly hundreds were registered, while not at their physical address, still in accordance with existing election law. These include the homeless, and others with non-traditional addresses.
• 535 were marked “inactive”, meaning they were voters who no longer voted, and were slated by King County Records and Elections for removal from the rolls.
• Ms. Sotelo altered the official challenge form, creating a new category of challenge specifically for her purposes.
• Ms. Sotelo did not perform any research herself, as acknowledged by Washington State Republican Party Chair Chris Vance in the Seattle Times.
• Ms. Sotelo does not personally know any challenged voters, nor has she made any attempt to contact them prior to challenging their voter registration.
• Ms. Sotelo acknowledged in recent challenge hearings that she made no attempt to verify accuracy of information during the VRIP’s match.
• Ms. Sotelo remains unable to provide evidence of any voter’s actual residence, as required by current election law in the event of a challenge.

Ms. Sotelo signed each of the 1,944 voter challenges “under penalty of perjury”. The documents require the signer to declare, by signing, that under penalty of perjury they have “personal knowledge” that the challenged voter does not, in fact, have the legal right to vote at their registered address.

Ms. Sotelo did not on October 26, nor does she now, have personal knowledge of the actual address nor voting eligibility of any of the 1,944 voters she has challenged. Because of her actions, many legally registered voters were too intimidated or frustrated to vote, cheating our democratic system.