County ends hand recount
Ballot count wraps up in governor's race

By Jerry Cornfield  Everett Herald Writer   16 December 2004

On Wednesday, they finished counting in Everett, added ballots in Seattle and subtracted votes in Mount Vernon.

Just another day in the unprecedented hand recount the state is relying on to decide whether Republican Dino Rossi or Democrat Christine Gregoire is inaugurated as the next governor.

Governor's race recount

What happened: Snohomish County finished its hand count. In King County, the canvassing board decided that 573 previously uncounted votes would be tallied. The board has not yet made a decision on 22 additional ballots.

Status: As of Wednesday, Dino Rossi was leading by 121 votes.

Today: Snohomish County's canvassing board will determine how to handle 10 ballots in which vote counters could not determine the voter's intent. The board will certify and release the results at 2:30 p.m. today.
Rossi, a former state senator, held a 42-vote lead over Gregoire, the state's attorney general, after a machine recount. As of Wednesday, he had gained 81 votes in the hand recount for a margin of 121.

The most intense moments came in Seattle when a King County canvassing board decided that 573 uncounted ballots discovered this week should be tallied, but postponed action on 22 others found in bins attached to voting machines.

Uncounted ballots in King County could reverse the outcome. The county is a Democratic stronghold where Gregoire captured nearly 58 percent of all votes cast.

As expected, the ruling thrilled Democrats and enraged Republicans who squeezed inside a county hearing room to watch the three-member panel make its decision.

King County election officials said they discovered Sunday that 573 absentee ballots had not been counted because the voters' signatures had not been scanned into in the county's computer system. Election workers should have checked the paper files, but instead the ballots were mistakenly rejected.

The other 22 ballots were found in polling places in the side bins of plastic base units in which the voting machines sit, said Bill Huennekens, county election superintendent. All ballots should have been logged on Election Day and returned in a sealed bag to election headquarters, but that didn't happen with these, he said.

State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance, who has intimated that fraud could be behind this December surprise, urged the canvassing board not to count them and "to slow down and figure out what's going on with these ballots."

Paul Berendt, Vance's counterpart in the state Democratic Party, called the GOP allegations of potential fraud "irresponsible" and urged party leaders and Rossi to "calm down, stop interfering and let the count proceed."

In Skagit County, the issue was about subtracting, not adding.

Gregoire lost 16 votes and Rossi lost five after vote counters determined that one stack of ballots had been counted twice in November's machine recount. Six people - two Republicans, two Democrats and two nonpartisans - verified the mistake, and Skagit County's canvassing board made the correction, elections supervisor Erika Kubischta said.

In Snohomish County, applause broke out at 10:32 a.m. when the last of 200,737 ballots had been counted.

Elections director Carolyn Diepenbrock thanked the crew, then smiled and added, "You all get to leave now."

At 9 a.m. today, Snohomish County's canvassing board will decide how to handle 10 ballots that counters set aside because they could not determine the intent of the voter. At 2:30 p.m., the same panel will officially certify the totals, send the results to the secretary of state and publicly release the numbers.

Workers completed the task in 21/2 days without any major disputes.

Evelyn Spencer, a Snohomish County Republican Party observer, praised Snohomish County election staff for their planning and execution of the process. "The checks and balances here are just superb," she said, adding that she saw no evidence of fraudulent activity.

Two members of the federal Election Assistance Commission watched the process wrap up in Everett on Wednesday. They also visited counting centers in Pierce and King counties.

Commissioners Ray Martinez of Texas and Paul DeGregorio of Missouri said they came solely to watch and take notes to share with other election officials nationwide. They said they had no power to intervene.

When the counting ended in Everett, DeGregorio addressed the room of workers, political party observers and county officials.

"The whole country is watching this. We commend you for making democracy work," he said. "We're going to learn from your experience."

Herald wire services contributed to this report.