Posted on 11/24/2004 1:05:57 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
Republican Dino Rossi came out ahead of Democrat Christine Gregoire by just 42 votes Wednesday in the recount for Washington governor, but the Democrats are expected to demand yet another recount.
The contest was the nation's last undecided race for the governor.
The machine recount of 2.8 million ballots left Rossi just 42 votes ahead of Gregoire, the state attorney general. That makes it the closest governor's race in Washington history.
Rossi had also won the original count, but his 261-vote margin was so small it triggered an automatic recount.
The Republicans called on Gregoire to concede and not drag the state through a third count that could stretch until Christmas week or longer. But even before the last big surge of ballots was tallied, Democrats had signaled they would seek a hand recount in at least part of the state.
Rossi, 45, a self-made real estate millionaire and former state Senate budget chairman from the Seattle suburb of Sammamish, was hoping to become the first Republican since 1980 to get elected governor. He ran on a platform of change and job-creation.
Gregoire, 57, was hoping to become the state's second woman governor. She carried eight of the 39 counties, most notably the largest, King, which includes heavily Democratic Seattle. Gregoire was strongly backed by the women's movement and was best known for battling America's tobacco industry.
Gregoire is also widely known for being the most6 corrupt AG in state history. She's going to eventually go to prison for her public corruption.
Looks like the RATs were able to slip in 219 fraudulent ballots from the first count.
Another recount should allow them to slip in another 43 so their RAT will win.
I am sitting here listening to Komo news and I havent heard anything yet. Hmmm
Also, Demo's crying for another hand job...what's new.
According to KVI earlier, Gregoire gained 185 votes in King county (amazing that's all she got based on how they were counting (by hand, when it was supposed to be by machine)and filling in ballots), and, as I recall some additional ballots 'magically appeared).
She also received an additional 34 votes in Kitsap (which may or may not be interesting as by my figures, Rossi had a slight % lead in that county on the original votes). There were a couple of other counties I found somewhat 'interesting' in that the % break for recounts was different than the % alocated to each for the original count (maybe fishy, maybe the original % were wrong)??
Interesting note posted on Sound Politics:
"...want to see something creepy? Total vote change in King County was 971 votes. Subtract from that the 710 undervote ballots and you have... 261.
Posted by Timothy at November 24, 2004 01:00 PM "
I see you are an educated consumer. :)
Rossi had also won the original count, but his 261-vote margin was so small it triggered an automatic recount"
Total vote change in King County was 971 votes. Subtract from that the 710 undervote ballots and you have... 261.
Sounds familiar. Grab a beer and some popcorn. This could be entertaining.
I'm actually not that worried...
In the "machine" recount, King County still pulled out all the ballots that the machines didn't process and hand counted those anyway.
The only benefit to Gregoire would be if a machine had a habit of counting a Gregoire vote for Rossi instead... that's the only way they could possibly pick up any more votes there.
What I'm saying is, any "strange" ballots in King County have already been hand-counted, so I'm not convinced that Gregoire would benefit legitimately.
That being said, there is the corruption factor in a hand count. Cases where the machine got it right but a sleepy-eyed (or partisan) human counter puts a ballot in the wrong stack.
Personally, Gregoire is now a 2XLoser. I don't want a 2XLoser as governor.
They've most likely already stole all they can steal, and it wasn't enough. They basically got a hand recount out of King County (the biggest county in the state, where Gregoire won 60/40), and even the other 7 counties she won she didn't win by much. So a hand recount would probably just add Dino votes.
I'm confedent we have won this.
They can ask for a hand recount, but they must pay for it. It'll cost roughly $750,000 for the whole state.
If a hand recount in selected counties changes the results, the rest of the counties must also hand recount by state law. Sam Reed (R) our Secretary of State, confirmed this fact just yesterday.
Thus earning the nickname: Dino "Landslide" Rossi.
In this state, ANY win by a Republican Governor is essentially a landslide.
Yah, true. And the dems will undoubtedly do it if they decide to go the recount again rout. They are greedy. Completely obsessed with money, especially other peoples.
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