The Dems nationally will get a BIG BLACK EYE for this WA mess! Rossi-Gregoire battle still rages
Friday, December 3, 2004 · Last updated 6:21 p.m. PT
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
seattlepi.nwsource.com
IT'S NOW A TWO-FRONT WAR: Democrats announce a second recount of the 2.9 million ballots cast for governor, and head to state Supreme Court to seek a broader ballot count.
THIRD WATCH: A manual recount by three-member teams will be ordered by the secretary of state on Monday. Most counties will begin on Wednesday. The largest, King, will start Thursday and take about two weeks. At two-bits a vote, the recount is costing Democrats more than $700,000.
SUPREME QUESTIONS: Democratic Party asks the state high court to make it more than just a new count of votes tabulated in the recent machine recount. Democrats want a fresh look at disqualified ballots, including provisional and absentee ballots that were rejected. A hearing could be Wednesday or Thursday.
SO WHAT'S THE FUSS? Republican Dino Rossi edged Democrat Christine Gregoire by just 42 votes out of more than 2.9 million cast for governor. A recount certified Tuesday showed that both wound up with 48.87 percent of the vote. Both got 1.3724 million votes.
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Third time's a charm: How the recount will work
seattlepi.nwsource.com
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, December 3, 2004 · Last updated 4:58 p.m. PT
On Monday, Secretary of State Sam Reed will officially order a statewide hand recount of votes cast in the Washington governor's race. Here is how it will work:
THE WARMUP: Counties will need to hire and train temporary workers to recount the ballots by hand. Of course, they'll be competing against malls and other stores for seasonal workers.
THE COUNTERS: Three-person teams will do the work, with two people counting the ballots and one recording the votes.
King County elections officials plan to hire 160 temporary workers, 80 recommended by the Republican Party and 80 recommended by the Democratic party. Each three-person team will consist of one Democrat, one Republican, and one county elections worker. Other counties plan to do the same.
THE PUBLIC: The hand recount is open to observers and members of the public, just as the original vote-counting and the first recount were.
THE TIMELINE: The hand recount should finish by Dec. 23. That's the estimate from King County, which has the most ballots to count and plans to have workers recounting votes seven days a week.
THE CONTROVERSY: The big question is whether the recount will include "new" votes - ballots that were not counted the first two times, for various reasons. The state Democratic Party announced plans Friday to go to court over that issue.
WILL IT EVER END? This is the final recount allowed by state law. The winner of this recount will be the governor. But court action could complicate the ending. The inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 12.
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Washington Democrats Get New Count of Governor's Race (Update1)
bloomberg.com
Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Washington's Democratic Party forced a third count of ballots cast in the governor's race, seeking to reverse a 42-vote victory that would make Dino Rossi the first Republican governor of Washington in two decades.
Rossi, 45, was declared the winner this week after two machine counts showed that he defeated state Attorney General Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, by the slimmest margin in Washington history. Saying thousands of votes were missed, Democrats raised enough money to force a hand count.
``Even though the race is too close to call at this point, I believe that Chris Gregoire won the election,'' Paul Berendt, chairman of the Washington State Democrats, said in a statement.
Democrats are seeking to keep the 20 years of control they have had over the governor's office in Washington, the home of Microsoft Corp. and the site of airplane factories for Boeing Co. A victory for Rossi there would extend Republicans' dominance over U.S. state governments by giving them a 29-to-21 edge over Democrats in governorships.
Kerry Donation
Under state law, a political party can demand a recount, provided they pay for it. After a week of raising money from donors, including U.S. Senator John Kerry, Democrats handed Secretary of State Sam Reed a $730,000 check for the count. The state will charge 25 cents per ballot to cover the cost of counting the approximately 2.8 million votes cast.
The third tally will prolong the Washington governor's race until at least late December. The state's 39 counties will begin reviewing their ballots on Dec. 8 or Dec. 9, Reed said.
``We have never conducted a mandatory or requested hand recount in a statewide race,'' Reed said in a statement e-mailed to reporters. ``This is new territory for Washington and an enormous undertaking.''
Rossi or Gregoire in January will replace Governor Gary Locke, a Democrat who decided not to seek another term. Gregoire, 57, helped negotiate the record legal settlement between U.S. states and tobacco makers. Rossi is a commercial real-estate developer and former state senator.
To contact the reporter on this story:
William Selway in San Francisco at at wselway@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Mark Pittman at at mpittman@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 3, 2004 18:48 EST |
