Free Republic

Recount by the numbers Here are some interesting numbers to mull over: Counties reported: 10, representing ~4% of the statewide vote Rossi's lead over Gregoire in the counties that have reported: +683, or a margin of +0.6686% Net new two-party votes since the machine recount: +57, an increase of 0.06% In the remaining 29 counties, Gregoire led the machine recount by 640 votes, or a margin of 0.0242%. In order for Gregoire to win (or tie), she would need to increase that lead of 640 votes to 683 votes, a 6.7% increase. Simply put, either she has to get the...

Reid Says He Could Back Scalia for Chief Justice Comments Anger Liberals And Thomas Supporters By Michael A. Fletcher Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 7, 2004; Page A04 Partisans on both sides of the debate over judicial nominees voiced displeasure yesterday with incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid's comments indicating that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia could make an acceptable nominee for chief justice. In an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," the Nevada Democrat said that although he often disagrees with Scalia, he could support him to be chief justice of the United States because he...

November 29, 2004 Gregoire's illegitimate recount As Seth notes below, John Fund asks in today's WSJ Opinion Journal "Will Democrats steal the Washington governorship?" Well they're certainly going to try. I heard on KUOW this morning (can't find any report on line) that Gregoire will definitely ask for a hand recount this week. How should the Republicans respond? First, it's important to reiterate that Dino Rossi won two statewide counts; even after the Gregoire people won all of their legal and procedural fights to obtain certain unfair advantages; even after they were permitted to hand in questionable (and in...

Operation: Red Washington While the national Republican Party is enjoying a run of success it hasn’t seen in 75 years, here in Washington State, the picture is less rosy. Despite winning a couple of high profile races, including (hopefully) the come-from-behind victory of Dino Rossi, the Washington State GOP remains sclerotic. We lost control of the state Senate. Our US Senate candidate lost by 12 points. Each of our six losing candidates for US Congress lost by at least 20 points, as did two of our statewide candidates. And, perhaps most disturbing of all, from the state legislature on up,...

This is a LIVE THREAD for discussion of the impending certification of final results in the Washington State Governor's race, between Dino Rossi (R) and Christine Gregoire (D). The Secretary of State is required to certify the final results this evening. As of 4:28 P.M. PST, Gregoire leads by 29 votes with 2521 votes from 4 or 5 counties left to be reported. King County (the Dem's stronghold) has apparently made its final report. Washington State law requires a machine recount if the certified results show a difference of less than 2000, which now seems almost certain. It also requires...

Gregoire 1367400 48.87% Rossi 1367464 48.87% Bennett 63068 2.25% Results last updated on: 11/17/2004 9:29:00 AM

Today, at long last, Democrat Christine Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi are supposed to find out which one will become Washington's next governor. At least that's the theory. What they will find out this afternoon, when the counties are required by law to finish counting ballots and certify their results, is who won the most votes. But a mandatory recount is almost certain, so the outcome probably won't be official until at least next week. And before either candidate is declared a winner, they may have to survive legal challenges to the result. After yesterday's counting, Rossi had a 19-vote...

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- After a day of vote-counting with more suspenseful twists than an Alfred Hitchcock movie, Republican Dino Rossi held a 19-vote lead over Democrat Christine Gregoire on Tuesday night in the governor's race. With the candidates so close, out of 2.8 million ballots cast, the winner will come down to the final day of counting. A statewide recount is looking more likely by the minute. Other than Rossi's miniscule lead, it was a good day for Gregoire. Tuesday's drama began when Grays Harbor County officials started recounting all 28,000 of their ballots after discovering a glitch that mistakenly...

I'll be updating the table below throughout the day as new returns are announced. The table columns are the same as yesterday. See this post for explanation. As I mentioned earlier, these are only estimates and projections based on the most recent available information from the Sec. of State and counties. This information has proven itself to be insufficiently reliable for making any real predictions, so I'm no longer going to call the race for either candidate at this point. Note also that Grays Harbor is going to recount, which is expected to improve Gregoire's margin by some unknown amount....

Help defend Dino Rossi Now that the Washington Democrats are turning to selective lawsuits to get around Dino Rossi's lead in the vote count, the rest of us need to fight back to defend a fair electoral process. Here's what you can do. Since provisional ballot information is already being released, the Washington State Republican Party is calling voters whose ballots were challenged to inform them and give them the opportunity to respond to the challenge so their votes can be counted. Volunteers are needed today. Contact Nicole Linde at WSRP 206-575-2900, ext. 19; or mobile: 509-830-0278 [an earlier version...

Christine Gregoire Democrat 1360871 48.88% Dino Rossi Republican 1360713 48.87% Ruth Bennett Libertarian 62439 2.24% Results last updated on: 11/15/2004 5:59:00 PM

New data: Christine Gregoire Democrat 1346099 48.85% Dino Rossi Republican 1348034 48.92% Ruth Bennett Libertarian 61362 2.22%

Taken from: http://www.soundpolitics.com/ (This is the message of a republican blogger:) King County Vote Count Flash My friend the Republican vote count observer reports some very good news for Dino Rossi: We wrapped up in the MBOS [Mail Ballot Operations Satellite] facility at about 2:00 today, with the following survey numbers: Rossi 458, or 42% Gregoire 542, or 49% Other (no governor vote, the Libertarian candidate, or a write-in) 113, or 10% Head to head, the ratio is 46% for Rossi versus 54% for Gregoire. Based upon the percentages, Rossi ended on a high note. A possible explanation for today’s...

More votes counted, Rossi still leads As partisans headed to the courthouse in a ballot dispute Friday, Republican Dino Rossi and Democrat Christine Gregoire dueled to a near-draw in Washington's vote count for governor. After Gregoire's stronghold, King County, reported updated figures Friday afternoon, Rossi's lead of about four-thousand votes shriveled to just a few hundred out of 2-point-8 million ballots counted. That was just two one-hundreths of a percentage point. As smaller counties reported in, Rossi built back a bit of the lead he has held for the past three days. The latest figures show him with a 1,677-vote...

Rossi for WA Governor 2004. Provisional results: Christine Gregoire Democrat 1345945 48.85% Dino Rossi Republican 1347865 48.92% Ruth Bennett Libertarian 61349 2.22%