Judge sides with Democrats in provisional ballot dispute in Washington's biggest county

PEGGY ANDERSEN, Associated Press Writer

Friday, November 12, 2004
 
A judge Friday ordered election officials in the state's largest county to turn over the names of about 900 voters whose provisional ballots are in dispute.

Judge Dean S. Lum said it would burden the county little to release the names, and that state law favors openness in government. "No right is more precious than the right to vote," he said.

A lawsuit by Democrats had sought to block election officials in King County, home to Seattle, from discarding the disputed ballots.

The legal wrangling stems from the closest gubernatorial race in state history. As of Friday afternoon, Republican Dino Rossi led Democrat Christine Gregoire by about 2,000 votes out of over 2.7 million counted. The count could drag on into next week.

State party chairman Paul Berendt said volunteers would work through the weekend to contact the voters. "We're up to it," he said, his voice breaking.

Counties estimated they have about 54,000 ballots left to count, mostly provisional ballots such as those that are the subject of the Democrats' lawsuit. Voters cast 31,700 provisional ballots which are essentially backup ballots cast when a resident's registration is in dispute.

King County has about 11,000 absentee and provisional ballots left to count. Democrats demanded that the county not discard hundreds of provisional ballots and give the party and the voters a chance to fix technical problems, such as not signing the ballot envelope.

The move was criticized by Republicans, who said Democrats threatened to turn the gubernatorial election into "another Florida."

The questioned ballots had three primary problems: The signature did not match registration records, there was no record that the voter was registered, or the voter had already mailed in an absentee ballot.

Also Friday, election materials from a southern Indiana congressional district were impounded after Democrats requested a recount amid concerns that optical-scan voting systems did not work properly.

Three-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Baron Hill lost the 9th District to Republican challenger Mike Sodrel by 1,485 votes, but questions arose about whether the machines correctly recorded some straight party-line votes.

The Indiana Recount Commission called an emergency meeting Friday to impound election materials. Hill sought the districtwide recount Thursday after a recount in Franklin County showed about 600 straight-Democratic Party votes had gone to Libertarians in initial tabulating.

Franklin County is not in the 9th District, but three counties that are also used optical-scan voting systems provided by the same manufacturer.

"I think legitimate questions have been raised," Hill spokesman Stefan Bailey said. "We need to make sure the voters know the final and legitimate outcome of this election."

The problem was caused by an error in an election-tabulation database that assigned straight-party Democratic votes to Libertarians and vice versa, Franklin County Clerk Marlene Flaspohler said.