Posted on 11/24/2004 10:09:36 AM PST by Publius
Republican Dino Rossi kept his razor-thin lead in the Washington governor's race as counties raced a Wednesday deadline for recounting 2.8 million ballots - and girded for yet another possible recount.
Both political parties were poised to request a rare hand recount if they don't like Wednesday's results. That count would take until nearly Christmas to complete.
"It looks like that's the only way we'll ever break this tie," state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt said Tuesday.
GOP Chairman Chris Vance said he expects Rossi to win Wednesday's count and called on Democrat Christine Gregoire to "do the decent thing, the honorable thing and concede, instead of dragging this into the Christmas season with the state not knowing who the governor is."
Gregoire's camp said she still expects to win, and that a manual recount would make sure every valid ballot is counted.
The nation's last unsettled governor's race has drawn the attention of both national parties, including the Bush White House, which dispatched its election experts, and the Democratic Governors' Association, which has offered to help finance a new hand recount of at least part of the state.
With all but three of the state's 39 counties reporting by Tuesday afternoon, Rossi had gained a net 55 votes over Gregoire. Still recounting were King, Kitsap and Whitman counties.
Rossi, 45, a self-made real estate millionaire and former state Senate budget chairman, ended the regular count last week 261 votes ahead. That's the closest gubernatorial election in state history, and triggered an automatic machine recount.
Gregoire, 57, the three-term state attorney general, held out hope that the recount in King County, the state's largest county and her stronghold, would boost her into the lead on Wednesday.
More than 700 previously uncounted ballots were added to King's total after election workers, under the close watch of party observers, "enhanced" ballots to reflect the voters' intent. An example would be a ballot on which a voter circled the candidate's name, rather than filling in the oval for the optical scanner machine to read.
Gregoire carried eight of the state's 39 counties in the original count, with her strong King County showing offsetting Rossi's strength elsewhere.
"We're upbeat," Gregoire's campaign director Tim Zenk said in a teleconference. "It's a seesaw, up and down thing. ... We've always stood for the idea of `count every ballot and we'll win."'
Zenk said the campaign assumed that an ultra-tight finish will prompt the losing party to seek a more meticulous hand recount, in which each ballot is inspected and tallied, rather than simply run through a machine.
"It is inevitable if the margin narrows and we believe a hand recount will change the outcome," he said.
If Rossi wins the Wednesday count, Democrats could demand a statewide manual recount, bearing the cost of about $700,000, or could limit the request to King County or even selected precincts.
Republicans, who insist that winning the machine recount should end the matter in Rossi's favor, would review their options and likely would have their own recount request, said Mary Lane, spokeswoman for the Rossi campaign.
Secretary of State Sam Reed said he plans to certify the first recount next Tuesday. The campaigns or their parties have three business days to request a full or partial manual recount and have to foot the bill.
Reed said he'd probably direct that such a recount begin the following Monday, Dec. 6. He estimated the job would take about two weeks, probably stretching into Christmas week.
If a partial recount changes the outcome, then state law requires Reed to order a manual recount in the rest of the state. That would drive the process past Christmas.
The new governor, succeeding retiring two-term Democrat Gary Locke, is to be inaugurated Jan. 12. Both Gregoire and Rossi have named transition teams.
State Republicans already have a court date next Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The GOP wants King County to exclude ballots rejected by machines from the machine recount because they must be checked by hand - a process the Republicans say doesn't happen in counties that use punchcard ballots.
State Elections Director Nick Handy disputed that argument, saying the methodology may be different in punchcard counties but the standard is the same.
In an interview, Vance said Gregoire should concede if Rossi wins the machine recount.
But Berendt laid the groundwork for another recount, offering examples of "missing ballots, found ballots, machine malfunctions, machine error rates and a razor-thin difference between the candidates."
Snohomish County found a previously unrecorded 224 votes, Grant found 66 new ballots and Cowlitz County subtracted 69 votes, he said.
Many of the counties reported changes of between zero and three votes. Pierce, though, added 261 votes to Rossi's column and 242 to Gregoire. Spokane added 134 to Rossi and 121 to Gregoire, and Snohomish added 130 for Rossi and 131 for Gregoire. Adams, Cowlitz, Grant, Kittitas, Skagit, and Walla Walla also reported double-digit changes.
King County reports at approximately 1 PM today. That’s the big one.
Ping.
Goooo DinOooo
| Rossi |
why is this concept so hard for the Washington MSM to report on?
Calling it a tie is a psy-ops maneuver known as "planting memes" to the semiotics crowd. It's a way of preparing people for a manual recount that will miraculously "find" enough votes for Gregoire to elect her governor.
There is hope that Washington voters have cast off the heavy, oppressive yoke of the Democrats.
Why was this allowed in one of the large RAT counties and not in the 39 counties that went for Rossi?
"There is hope that Washington voters have cast off the heavy, oppressive yoke of the Democrats."
Don't be a fool! Washington voted for JEffinK!
>>"It looks like that's the only way we'll ever break this tie," state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt said Tuesday.
What tie? I'd retranslate what he said to...
"It looks like we misunderestimated the amount we had to cheat, and that's the only way we'll ever be able to steal this close election"
This was litigated before a 9th Circuit judge in Seattle, who refused to stop it. Another 9th Circuit judge in Seattle will take the case next Tuesday.
Yup!
Why was this allowed in one of the large RAT counties and not in the 3931 counties that went for Rossi?
39 counties total, 31 went to Rossi, 8 to Gregoire.
just last week Washington State judges decided to throw out about 25 murder convictions on some stupid technicality...
now we have to try them again....
we need a new judiciary...it starts with Bush appointing solid judges in every area...
I want conservative and limited interpretation of the law...
I hope the Pubbies are counting their "enhanced" ballots also.
Doh!
I'm scared that the Dim's WILL find a way to steal this away with all the "new" ballots that keep showing up in King Co.
:(
Also on the agenda is the fact the a state judge permitted the Democrats to round up and interview voters who had cast provisional ballots in King County for validation purposes while another state judge forbade the Republicans to do the same thing in Yakima County.
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