For those of us not intimately involved with this recount, what is going on?
Is the Dem or the Republican going to win?
What has happened as a result of the recount?
Thanks
Do a search by clicking on the keyword "ROSSI" in one of our threads, and it will bring up all the threads on the topic. This way you can see the timeline.
Short story is that Rossi(R) won the governorship by 196ish votes...Very close, considering 3.5 million were tallied.
This kicked off a mandatory machine recount by Washington State Law. The results of the machine recount dropped Rossi's lead to 42 votes, but he was still the winner.
The election was certified and Rossi announced Governor-elect.
The democrats aided by a large contribution from the Kerry campaign then paid for a statewide HAND recount.
Over the course of this third recount, new ballots seem to be surfacing...Until two days ago, the ballots turning up generally favored Rossi, but suddenly a comparatively very LARGE block of "previously uncounted valid" ballots turned up in the heavily democratic (and most populous) King County.
These votes will swing the election if counted against Rossi. Since there were two previous recount, and a variety of legal shenanigans involved in the interim, a Rossi governorship is now in serious doubt.
There are three possible scenarios.
1) One candidate will concede based upon the results of this recount.
2) The SCOWS will award a Gregoire(D) victory by allowing the 700ish newly discovered ballots to be counted
3) The result will be muddled or too close to definitively elect a winner, in which case the democrat-held legislature will choose the state's next governor...A fait accompli for the Gregoire campaign.
As a WA resident, unless the recount falls decisively to Rossi a third time (unlikely) I have to say that things look grim now.