Conspiracy Theories Abound in Wash. Race
By REBECCA COOK
The Associated Press   15 December 2004

 SEATTLE - Fourth-generation Washington resident Al Reece always believed in his state's reputation for squeaky-clean elections. But as he watches officials count the votes for the third time in the closest governor's race in state history, he is worried.

"Every time they take another count it changes. That doesn't seem possible, for it to be honest and to be different with each count," said Reece, 60, a retired saw operator. "It seems like something you would hear about in Chicago, where all the dead people voted."

No dead voters have turned up in Washington - yet. But with every recount, more problems surface. Sunday's discovery of hundreds of uncounted ballots in the Democratic stronghold of King County is fueling conspiracy theories. The county canvassing board was scheduled to meet Wednesday to decide what to do with the newly discovered ballots.

Six weeks after the election, it is anyone's guess whether Washington will have a new governor before the Jan. 12 inauguration.

Democrat Christine Gregoire, 57, a three-term attorney general, was the favorite going into the election against Republican Dino Rossi, 45, a former state senator.

But Rossi beat Gregoire by just 261 votes in the first count and led by an amazingly close 42 votes after a machine recount. The state is now recounting every ballot by hand, and by Wednesday, Rossi led by 106 votes out of 2.8 million ballots cast.

But the discovery of nearly 600 uncounted ballots in King County, home of Seattle, has thrown Rossi supporters for a loop. Officials announced that 573 ballots had been mistakenly rejected because election workers failed to match signatures on absentee ballots against the paper records on file.

On Tuesday night, an additional 22 ballots were found lying around polling places; all ballots should have been logged on Election Night and returned to headquarters, but these apparently were not.
 

Republicans are enraged, and conservative blogs are full of dark warnings that Democrats will steal the election with help from their King County minions.

"It's either incompetence or fraud," state GOP Chairman Chris Vance said. "From the outside you can't tell the difference."

Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, said he believes the King County problem is probably incompetence, not fraud. "A historically close election is going to show all the warts when you put the magnifying glass on it," Reed said.

In any case, this isn't another Florida, and election officials and political observers are quick to make that point every chance they get.

The big difference is that Washington had recount rules in place before the election, while Florida officials were forced to make decisions about things like hanging chads on the fly.

"That would never happen in Washington," said Todd Donovan, political science professor at Western Washington University. "State statutes give counties clear guidance, and that was absent in Florida."

The hand recount is expected to be finished on Dec. 22, when King County reports its final tally. If Rossi wins the third count, Gregoire has promised to concede. But if the newly discovered King County votes reverse the results and put Gregoire on top, it is doubtful the Republicans will give up without a fight.

Many Washington residents are content to wait a bit longer.

"For the most part, I'll let them hash it out, said Terrance Trent, a 29-year-old bridge inspector who was visiting a mall with his children Wednesday. "I'm thinking more about my kids and Christmas right now."

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