Wash. Supreme Court to decide fate of King County disputed ballots

11:00 AM PST on Monday, December 20, 2004

By KING and AP Staff

TUKWILA, Wash. - Washington's Supreme Court will hear an appeal Wednesday morning by Washington's Democrats, who are asking the court to overturn a judge's decision and allow King County to include 723 disputed ballots in the hand recount of the Washington governor's race.

 The historic race for governor comes down to one remaining county: King County. With every county but King reporting recount results, Republican Dino Rossi has a lead of 50 votes over Democrat Christine Gregoire in the extremely tight race for governor.

King County workers continue the hand recount at a center in Tukwila, south of Seattle. Dean Logan, King County elections director, said the count is expected to be complete by Wednesday.

Those results will be released when the recount is finished, said Logan; however, they will not be certified until the state Supreme Court makes a decision regarding the 723 disputed ballots that were uncounted in King County due to a computer glitch. That appeal is set to begin at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

A Pierce County judge ruling last Friday granted a state Republican Party request to block King County from counting hundreds of recently discovered ballots.

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.

However, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend said it was simply too late for counties to reconsider ballots from the November election, even if such ballots were erroneously rejected by election workers.

State Republican Chair Chris Vance claimed election officials knew about ballot problems months ago and are only now doing something about it for political reasons.

?What?s at stake here is not just one individual?s ballot but the legitimacy and orderliness and confidence people can have in this election process,? said Vance.

Vance cites a memo by election supervisor Bill Huennekens to the King County Canvassing Board and an effort in August in which workers asked more than 1,100 absentee voters to their signature cards.

Logan admitted his office made a mistake and should have counted the ballots originally, but dismisses any hint of wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Gregoire rejected the Republican-proposed idea of another statewide election.

?A redo is good in games like golf and mulligan when you?re practicing, not when it?s real,? said Gregoire.

If another election were to take place, it could cost the state nearly $4 million.

Rossi, a former state senator, won the Nov. 2 election over attorney general Gregoire by 261 votes in the first count and by 42 after a machine recount of the 2.9 million ballots. Hand recount results by Friday night, with every county but King reporting, showed he gained eight votes for an overall lead of 50.

With or without the hundreds of disputed ballots, the recount of King County?s 900,000 ballots could change the outcome.

Republicans, Democrats protest

More than 100 people gathered Sunday outside Republican Dino Rossi?s campaign headquarters to protest on both sides of the highly contentious recount of the governor?s race.

In a battle of signs and slogans, Democrats said they were outraged, claiming that Republicans are trying to keep legitimate votes from being counted in the statewide hand recount now underway.

Rossi supporters, standing on a corner across the street, demanded that only previously counted ballots be tabulated in this round of counting.