Battlegrounders
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WASHINGTON: NUMBERS GAME [D. F. Oliveria 10/19 04:48 PM]
In Washington, as in other battleground states, Repubs and Demos have engaged in a battle royal to register new voters. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, there's evidence that the Demos have an edge in a record-breaking year for voter registration, with two-thirds of the new registrations of at least 314,171 voters coming from counties won by Al Gore four years ago. In King County (Seattle), registration of new voters has almost doubled from 64,025 in 2000 to at least 110,556. Both sides, of course, are spinning the numbers. If there's a silver lining for Repubs, it's the gay marriage issue that's floating under the surface. Washington doesn't have a traditional marriage initiative on the ballot, but it does have two judges — in Seattle and Olympia — who struck down the state's gay marriage ban in the last two months. And Christian conservatives in the Northwest are watching the vote on traditional marriage in neighboring Oregon. In the last month, Washington Evangelicals have rallied in support of traditional marriage, including 4,000 who attended a "Mayday for Marriage Rally" in Spokane Oct. 10 (unfortunately, Ithe link is subscriber only). |
