County begins vote recount

No Pierce totals will be released until all ballots have been tallied

MARCELENE EDWARDS; The Tacoma News Tribune
Last d: November 21st, 2004 02:40 AM (PST)
Pierce County elections workers spent much of Saturday scrutinizing ballots as they began a recount of the state?s closest-ever governor?s race.

And looking over their shoulders were dozens of representatives from campaigns, political parties and unions making sure they were treating each ballot fairly.

Republican Dino Rossi won the governor?s race by 261 votes over Democrat Christine Gregoire. The total, certified this week, was so close that it triggered an automatic statewide recount.

Election officials in some of Washington?s 39 counties began that recount Saturday of the 2.8 million votes. The recount in Pierce County is expected to continue through Tuesday. No state recount has ever changed the outcome of an election, but with such a narrow gap, there?s no predicting the final result.

Elections workers dressed in dark blue Pierce County Auditors T-shirts and sweatshirts fed more than 186,500 absentee ballots and ballots from 82 out of 106 polling places through the voting machines during 10 hours of work Saturday, said Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy. No vote counts will be released until all counting is done.

The workers, many of whom have been on the job daily since the general election on Nov. 2, sat in front of stacks of thousands of ballots looking for stray pen marks, staples or anything that would cause the voting machines to discount the vote.

The clean ballots from voters who picked a candidate in the governor?s race or a candidate in the state House race in the Lakewood-based 28th Legislative District, which is also being recounted, were sent through the voting machines a second time.

Ballots that had something wrong with them or were incorrectly marked were put aside. Elections workers would later create new ballots with votes that matched the originals and run the clean ballots through the voting machine. Observers were scrutinizing that process.

?There were obviously mismarked ballots,? said Gary Buckley, who was watching the recount on behalf of Rossi?s campaign. ?The question is how are they treated.?

In some cases, election workers have to make a judgment about the voter?s intent, he said. Was the mark just a stray ink blot or a true vote for a candidate?

Ballots that are questionable or that two people can?t agree on go to a committee made up of McCarthy, the Pierce County Council chairman and the prosecuting attorney.

McCarthy said state law outlines what constitutes a vote and that election workers are instructed on how to count mismarked ballots.

    
So far, Buckley and other observers said, the Pierce County Auditor?s Office has handled the recount well.

?It seems to me that they are being very thorough,? said Aliya Caler, a worker from the Washington State Democratic Coordinating Committee. ?All of the people looking at the ballots are erring on the side of caution.?

Campaign observers were allowed to wander among the tables of election workers to look over their shoulders.

Ralph Craft, a staff member from Republican Bob Lawrence?s campaign for the 28th Legislative District, said he watched one worker look at about 1,000 ballots and agreed with all her decisions.

?The auditor?s staff has gone above and beyond,? he said. Lawrence?s opponent, Democrat Tami Green, had a 235-vote lead in the race.

In the governor?s race, Klickitat County was the first to report its recount, adding one vote to the Rossi column. At least three other counties began the recount Saturday: King, Skagit and Spokane.

The final vote counts must be certified by Dec. 2.

In King County, Republicans voiced concerns about security for unmarked ballots, which are kept in the same place as marked ballots in case election workers need to replace a ballot that is damaged or for some other reason cannot be counted by machine. County elections director Dean Logan insists the process is secure.