The big thing about the Petition for Rehearing, though, is the discrepancy in the absentee ballot count. The evidence presented at trial showed that there were five more absentee ballots counted than had been validly cast. It was those five votes in question, not the five ballots cast by people illegally under UOCAVA. The Press’s skewspaper article tried to make people believe that the Petition for Rehearing was about the UOCAVA ballots.

The former County Clerk failed to keep the statutorily required record (see I.C. 34-1011) which, had he done his job as state law required, might have resolved the issue before it ever became an issue.

Serving as the election board of canvassers, the Coeur d’Alene City Council didn’t ask any questions; it simply applied its then-common rubber stamp to blindly and blithely approve anything anyone puts in front of them. That was expected, of course, because the Coeur d’Alene City Council got the election results it wanted in 2009. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that if the incumbents (McEvers, Goodlander, and Kennedy) had been defeated by just a few votes, they would have pursued every avenue available to them to overturn the election. They might have succeeded, too, because both the Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh and then-County Clerk Dan English would have been working on their behalf.

Thank you Bill.I see it more clearly now.

I think I know where they came from. They were run through before they were rejected and thus when the canvass was prepared the target number was 2051 so in the infinite wisdom of the “bean” the counting came out to the correct, “already established” number of 2051. No fuss no muss, everything is cozy and rosy.

The five rejected (voided) votes were not cast. They were left unopened and presumably remain sealed to this day in their respective envelopes. However, the five envelopes (containing the voided ballots) were counted among the 2051 envelopes the Court agreed were received. The real question is where did the ballots come from that were run through the tabulators so that there were 2051 ballots cast, not just the 2046 valid ballots that existed. As Hosack articulated in his trial court decision, “No voter ever existed, and [thus] no inquiry can be made [into whom it was cast for].”