Posted on 12/22/2004 3:30:54 AM PST by CGblue
Democrats: Gregoire wins by 8 votes Election officials dismiss claim as premature
By CHRIS McGANN AND CHRISTINE FREY SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS
Democrat Christine Gregoire will defeat Republican Dino Rossi by eight votes in the governor's race recount when King County reports results today, state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt said last night.
"We are absolutely confident that she is going to be the next governor of the state of Washington," Berendt said.
Both parties have been provided with daily tallies of the county's manual recount. Berendt said those updates and results from the county canvassing board's review of unclear ballots provided the data he needed to call the race.
King County elections officials said Berendt's victory claim was premature and that the data the parties are seeing hasn't been reconciled.
"I'm not going to call the election tonight," said King County Elections spokeswoman Bobbie Egan.
Mary Lane, a spokeswoman for Rossi, said, "All we know is it's close, and we're still crunching numbers."
King County will be the last of Washington's 39 counties to report results in the hand recount of 2.8 million votes.
If Gregoire does win the statewide hand recount, it will mark an incredible turnaround for the attorney general.
She had faced pressure to concede after losing the original tally by 261 votes and the mandatory machine recount by 42 votes.
In the hand recount, Rossi was leading by 49 votes with only King County left to report its results, which consist of about 900,000 ballots.
Egan said the information the parties have is an unreconciled list of precinct data. It does not include more than 1,600 ballots that the canvassing board looked at yesterday and Monday, she said. However both parties had representatives closely observing the canvassing board this week.
Asked what the Republicans would do if Gregoire wins the hand recount, Lane said, "We will cross that bridge when we get to it. We've said all along if the election is overturned, we will reserve all our options."
As with nearly every twist in this incredible race, the Democrats' victory claim left many questions unanswered -- including what effect today's Supreme Court hearing could have.
The high court will hear arguments about whether King County should be allowed to add to the recount 700-plus ballots that weren't counted originally because of mistakes made by election workers.
Berendt's victory claim did not include those ballots, and it's unclear what their inclusion would do to the outcome, though Democrats are hopeful Gregoire would pick up votes. Berendt said Democrats would still argue that those disputed ballots should be included in the hand recount.
Kirstin Brost, spokeswoman for the state Democrats, said the uncounted votes are a wildcard and that it's possible they could, in fact, swing the lead back to Rossi.
If that were the case, Brost said the Democrats would accept that outcome.
A Pierce County judge ordered King County to stop counting those ballots. King County, the state Democratic Party and the Secretary of State appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The court will be asked to interpret a state recanvassing law and their own ruling on another recount case last week.
In that ruling, the justices said a recount should simply be a retabulation of previously counted valid ballots -- subject to the provisions of the recanvassing law.
The recanvassing law says county canvassing boards can reconsider votes when there is "an apparent discrepancy or an inconsistency in the returns."
TODAY
The state Supreme Court hears an appeal about hundreds of disputed King County ballots at 9:30 a.m. The hourlong hearing will be broadcast live on TVW, channel 23 on most cable networks. Also, King County plans to announce its recount results by 3:30 p.m.
This report includes information from P-I columnist Joel Connelly and The Associated Press.
I think it was his 1954 Senate Race against Coke Stevenson.
Let the recall begin.
>> "STOP calling the Democrat Party their contrived Democratic Party." <<
I prefer to call them the DemonRats.
Democrats = thieves
or DimmercRats
Why can't they have another election?
Classic Rats. They count until they get the result they want, then declare victory immediately.
Sounds so similar...we've been hearin how "just a few votes in Ohio" swung the election to Bush. Of course, Kerry would have been "selected" with more than 3 million fewer popular votes if it had happened.
Many Democrats are not moral people.
Convenient, isn't it. Recount, and recount, until your candidate wins...
What were the mistakes?
From The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. (2000):
in·cred·i·ble (
n-kr
d
-bl) adj.
1) So implausible as to elicit disbelief.
[...]
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Latin incr
dibilis : in-, not; + crdibilis, believable
Sorry to spoil your rant, but the official name of the political party in question is "Democratic." Wishing just don't make it so.
They followed the rules about signatures.
Bad mistake.
This is what the DNC wanted Kerry to do in the event that there was a problem at the polls. By declaring victory you now put your opponent on the defensive.
Now the courts are put into the position of stealing the election for the Republicans. Good political move. Hope it backfires.
Is there a provision in the State of Washington constitution where by the governor can be recalled. In other words could we pull an "Arnold" and if the Democrat is sworn in then we could recall her and force another election.
EXACTLY!
How many Americans are aware that in the Florida 2000 debacle, the Republicans had MANY examples of things they could have brought up as lawsuits, but couldn't bring up or ask for recounts, since they were the WINNER. The key for the Dems is to win the last recount...putting the Republicans in the hot seat.
Dirty, and I hope the Republicans are ready for it this time.
The last one, as the Marxist-Stream-media will declare the DemonRAT the winner, and ask that we all just accept the findings and "Move on"!
So---this isn't over. Either way, there will certainly be appeals from the losing side.
Damn...that's one ugly future President you got there.
Also a personal pet peeve of mine.
Although I've lately come to know them as "'rat bastards"!
You may be correct PRW but these Democrats seem to differ:
The Whitley County Democrat Central Committee
This web page authorized by the Whitley County Democrat Party,
Gregory W. Hockemeyer Chairman.
2/07/2004
Gregory W. Hockemeyer, Chairman
Marjorie L. Warnick, Vice Chairman
Dave Crabill, Secretary
Tim Bloom, Treasurer
If you would like to send a contribution to the Whitley County Democrat Party, Please do so by using the address below!!!
Whitley County Democrat Party
C/O Tim Bloom
119 S. Main St. Columbia City IN. 46725
Or the Whitley County Democrat Party also has a new easy way of making direct contributions just click here and we will show you how easy it is.
Thomas R. Marshall
Thomas R. Marshall an Attorney by trade lived most of his adult life in Columbia City, In 1908 he was elected Governor of Indiana and served until 1912, he was then elected to serve as the 28th Vice-President under Woodrow Wilson from 1913 until 1921. The Thomas R. Marshall Home at 108 W. Jefferson St. is now the Home of The Whitley County Historical Museum.
Vice-President Marshall was famous for his saying "What this country needs is a good five cent cigar." and "There were once two brothers one went off to sea while the other became vice-president and neither was heard from again."
So in Vice President Marshall honor we hold the Thomas R. Marshall Dinner every September, to keep his memory alive.
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