Judge blocks count of newly discovered ballots in governor's race

By Rebecca Cook, Associated Press Writer
December 17, 2004

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) A judge Friday granted a state Republican Party request to block the counting of hundreds of recently discovered King County ballots in Washington?s incredibly close governor?s race.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend?s decision hinged on whether it was simply too late for counties to reconsider ballots from the November election, even if such ballots were erroneously rejected by election workers.

  
From reading state law and state Supreme Court decisions, "it is clear to me that it is not appropriate to go back and revisit decisions on whether ballots should or should not be counted," Arend said.

State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt said the party would appeal the decision.
"We?re going to fight for every vote to count in the state of Washington," he said. "I guess we?re headed to the (state) Supreme Court."

Republican Dino Rossi won the Nov. 2 election over Democrat Christine Gregoire by 261 votes in the first count and by 42 after a machine recount of the 2.9 million votes cast.

Friday afternoon, with all but two of Washington?s counties reporting results of the hand recount, Rossi had picked up just one net vote over Gregoire. Pierce County?s results shrank his overall lead from 74 to 43.

King County the state?s most populous and a Gregoire stronghold and Spokane County are the only two that haven?t finished their manual recounts.

King County officials and Democrats had wanted to include 723 newfound ballots in the hand recount, saying they are valid ballots that were mistakenly rejected because of county workers? errors.

But Republicans went to court, saying it was too late to add ballots to the recount now.