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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: chomolungma who wrote (74482)	11/14/2000 2:56:01 PM
From: 91fxrs	Respond to of 769669

<<A 50-50 Senate is unlikely. Gorton's lead is now 12,532 votes,>> That all depends on how the recount is handled. VBG

To: chomolungma who wrote (74482)	11/14/2000 2:59:13 PM
From: Mr. Whist	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769669

Chomo: According to the latest story from the Seattle Times, the Washington state Senate race is still a toss-up. I would agree that Cantwell has an uphill climb, but stranger things have happened. By Dionne Searcey Seattle Times staff reporter U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton widened his lead over Democratic challenger Maria Cantwell yesterday after more absentee ballots were counted in 18 counties. At the end of the day, Gorton was up 12,532 votes - or by 0.61 percent. On Sunday, he led by 5,353 votes, or 0.26 percent. The latest batch of results, coming from mostly rural areas and Pierce County, didn't do much to point to a winner in the race that has stagnated for a week. A more clear indicator might come from King County's count today of 80,000 ballots - about half of its outstanding votes. Cantwell has been beating Gorton in the populous county, which could offset his lead in most areas outside the Seattle area. A Seattle Times analysis shows that the race is still on course for a dead heat and is likely to end up in a recount. The state automatically calls a recount if the final tally is within one half of 1 percent. The analysis is based on the assumption that the counties have accurately estimated the number of ballots yet to be counted. Neither candidate plans to declare victory or concede based on today's results. With an estimated 320,841 ballots yet to be counted statewide, both think a winner could emerge later this week. "There's so much information still out there that it would be impossible to give firm predictions," said Heidi Kelly, Gorton's campaign manager. Both Gorton, a three-term incumbent, and Cantwell, a high-tech millionaire and former congresswoman, still remain confident they will win. Gorton has been right so far in an Election Day prediction: Absentee voters have favored him. An analysis shows that of absentees cast between Gorton and Cantwell, he has received 51.5 percent of votes counted since Wednesday, while Cantwell has gotten 48.5 percent. (These percentages do not account for votes going to Libertarian candidate Jeff Jared.) The Senate race may not be the only race where a recount looms. The secretary of state's race remains within the margin that would trigger an automatic recount, as Republican Sam Reed led Democrat Don Bonker by 1,852 votes, or 0.1 percent (one-tenth of 1 percent). Some of the uncounted absentees are from overseas and haven't even been delivered. "There's a misperception that ballots just arrive over at the courthouse and you can rip them open and throw them in a processor," said David Brine, spokesman for Secretary of State Ralph Munro. "It's manually time-consuming. You can't get around it. If you start to compress the time, you're potentially cutting corners on the accuracy of the count." If a recount is held in any statewide race, it would begin after all 39 counties certify their results Nov. 22. The earliest recount tally would be available on Dec. 1, but the state would have until Dec. 7 to complete it. The Senate race, meanwhile, is being measured in minuscule ways. As results trickle in by the hour, every slight gain is scrutinized, every percentage analyzed, every number crunched and re-crunched by each campaign's team of experts. Ron Dotzauer, Cantwell's campaign manager, was excited by the slightest shift in Pierce County's count yesterday, even though Cantwell was technically losing there by 1,563 votes. "We got a half-percent increase, he got a 1.2 percent decline, and Jared got a 0.7 percent increase," Dotzauer said. "We love it!" Cantwell hadn't been into her campaign office but was keeping tabs from her home in Edmonds. Gorton had planned to travel to Washington, D.C., but because there wasn't much to do there, he stayed in his Bellevue home, Kelly said.