County votes to be decided today
2004-12-15
by Rebecca Cook
Associated Press

OLYMPIA The state Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously rejected the Democratic Party's petition to reconsider about 3,000 invalidated ballots in the hand recount of the extremely close governor's race.

Now the spotlight turns to King County, where as many as 595 uncounted votes may be added to the recount today, throwing the outcome of the election into even more doubt.

On Tuesday night, a King County election official said 22 more ballots had been found in addition to the previous 573.

Republican Dino Rossi won the Nov. 2 election by 261 votes and held a 42-vote lead over Democrat Christine Gregoire after the first, machine recount. By Tuesday he had gained 64 votes in the hand recount, giving him a margin of 106.

The uncounted ballots in King County, the state's most populous county and a Democratic stronghold, could potentially reverse the election results.

``We believe if you do a fair and honest recount, we win,'' Rossi said Tuesday. He said he wants to make sure the newly discovered King County ballots are thoroughly investigated.

``It's just too much of a coincidence. They just keep coming up with votes, and it has never benefited me,'' Rossi said. ``We're not going to take anything lying down, I'll guarantee you that.''

Gregoire said King County's last-minute discovery shows that the system is working.

``The whole purpose of the recount was to find mistakes and correct them,'' Gregoire said. ``Thank God King County found this mistake now instead of two weeks from now.''

She repeated her belief that the race for governor is a ``virtual tie,'' but said she's cautiously optimistic she can win.

``I don't think anyone can predict the outcome of the race,'' Gregoire said. ``I put my fate in the hands of the voters.''

The three-member King County canvassing board meets this afternoon to decide the fate of the latest 22 ballots and 573 uncounted absentee ballots that had been put in the ``reject'' pile after the election because the signatures on the ballots didn't match the signatures on file.

However, elections officials discovered Sunday that the signatures simply were not on file in the county's computer system. On Tuesday, election workers retrieved the 573 ballots and began checking signatures against the original paper records.

The canvassing board is expected to include all the validated ballots in the hand recount. King County Elections Director Dean Logan said he believes most of the 573 ballots belong to valid, registered voters.

Then came word of another 22 ballots 20 absentee and two provisional found in several polling places in the side bins of the plastic base units in which polling machines sit, said Bill Huennekens, county election superintendent. All of those ballots are supposed to be logged on election night and returned in a sealed bag to election headquarters. That didn't happen with these, he said.

They were discovered in the process of picking up the black base units from the county's 540 polling places and came to Logan's attention Monday, Huennekens said. Not all were found at the same polling place.

``King County's becoming a massive joke, but it's not funny,'' state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance said when he learned of the 22 additional ballots. He said Republicans would fight to keep them from being counted since they were not postmarked and had been left unsecured.

``My response is: that's a decision for the canvassing board,'' Huennekens said Tuesday night.

The Supreme Court ruling did not affect these King County ballots. State law gives local canvassing boards the power to recanvass ballots if they find there's a discrepancy in the vote count.

The Democrats' lawsuit sought to force county canvassing boards to reconsider ALL rejected ballots including those invalidated because of voter errors which the high court refused to do.

``This court cannot order the Secretary (of State) to establish standards for the recanvassing of ballots previously rejected in this election,'' Chief Justice Gerry Alexander wrote.

Both sides had reasons for hope and fear on Tuesday, between the Supreme Court decision, the King County revelationsand the ongoing hand recount.

Gregoire ``absolutely'' could win the hand recount, said state Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost.

Vance said earlier he still believes Rossi will win the hand recount, but said, ``We continue to worry about what's next in King County.

``It's either incompetence or fraud,'' Vance said. He said GOP lawyers are looking into the King County ballot situation.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, said the King County canvassing board should check thoroughly into what happened with the ballots.

``Let's face it, there are going to be people very suspicious about these circumstances,'' Reed said earlier Tuesday. ``It is imperative we come out of this process with people having trust and confidence in the system.''

Logan spent much of Tuesday defending his office against accusations of skullduggery.

``I believe we've acted appropriately and publicly,'' Logan said. ``In the end there will be a very clear record that will dispel any myth about there being fraud.''

He said he would investigate how it all happened. But, Logan added, ``The first priority has to be the recount.''

The hand recount is expected to take until at least Dec. 22 to complete. The inauguration for governor is scheduled for Jan. 12.