Could Legislature decide governor's race?

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS    10 December 2004

Even if state law would allow it, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Christine Gregoire said she would not contest results of the statewide hand recount - a tactic one party lawyer mentioned in a letter to the secretary of state.

"I've said all along, 42 votes out of 2.9 million is literally a tie," Gregoire told The Associated Press on Friday. "I want every legitimate vote counted and when that gets done - hopefully by Dec. 23 - the race will be done, and I will live by the results."

After a 261-vote margin of victory in the first count, Republican Dino Rossi won a statewide machine recount by 42 votes. Then Democrats demanded a hand recount - a process that's expected to cost the party more than $1 million, including legal costs.

Mary Lane, Rossi's spokeswoman, said she's not sure she trusts that Gregoire will stand by results of a second recount.

"I have to take what she says with a grain of salt," Lane said. "I think everybody does."

  
  
In a recent letter to Secretary of State Sam Reed, Democratic Party lawyer David Burman said that after the final recount, the courts would no longer be the final arbiter of any dispute.

"If there is to be an election contest as to this office, the constitution requires that it be decided by the Legislature, not the Judiciary, and that would drag into the early months of next year," Burman said in his letter, The News Tribune of Tacoma reported Friday.

The Legislature's role in certifying election results is largely ceremonial, with two exceptions:

-If there's a tie, the winner would be decided by a joint House-Senate vote.

-If there's a contested election, the section Burman noted in his letter says it "shall be decided by the Legislature in such matter as shall be determined by law."

In an interview with the newspaper, Burman said "the language of the constitution seems pretty clear that (lawmakers) are the ones that have to decide the issue."

Yet several experts said there is no consensus on how to interpret that language.

State Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, said Washington's law on contesting elections deals specifically with the process for challenging them in court, not before the Legislature.

State GOP Chairman Chris Vance said the party's lawyers believe the constitution would not allow the election to go to the Legislature.

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