Democrats advocate a cherished value

By JIM SAWYER  GUEST COLUMNIST  Seattle Post-Intelligencer   20 December 2004

Washington state has become ground zero in the war between reds and blues as the gubernatorial race between Republican Dino Rossi and Democrat Christine Gregoire heads to the wire. The chairmen of both political parties Republican Chris Vance and Democrat Paul Berendt need to chill out.

A local television commentator has it wrong, however, when he argues that both need serious therapy. Alone, Vance's rhetoric degrades legitimate government and takes our state, with his party, to a dangerous place. It is a place reminiscent of the hard-edged style of Republican spokesman James Baker in Florida and the hateful speech of Zell Miller at the Republican National Convention.

Vance's charge is ludicrous that Democrats in the Seattle area are trying to steal the election. Fraud is a grave charge. As a management control specialist, I certainly advocate that every prudent safeguard to secure an honest, accurate outcome. But Vance's incendiary speech ratchets public sentiment toward outrage and makes the tabulation task needlessly more fragile.

To be sure, our competent election system is not designed to discern paper-thin margins, but it must do so now. Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed notes there is an inherent variability in election results, which he describes as "99.9 percent accurate." One-tenth of 1 percent of 2.8 million gubernatorial ballots cast is 2,800. Forty-two votes, the margin of Rossi's lead in the first machine recount, is a tiny fraction of 2,800.

Democrats argue every vote should be counted; they paid for a second recount by hand, provided by law. As this final process draws to a close, the fragility of our legitimate election system is laid bare. But Vance's rhetoric is calculated to lead voters to the unwarranted conclusion that in King County the problem is gross incompetence or gross fraud.

Consider the case of tiny Asotin County, a Republican stronghold, in which Rossi gained 10 votes in the most recent hand recount above the 4,904 votes in the prior machine recount. Vance is not claiming gross incompetence or gross fraud in Asotin, yet the error rate there is about two votes for every 1,000 recounted. If the same error rate were to be applied to Gregoire's King County machine recount numbers, it would be more than 1,000 votes.

One legitimately may argue that large urban counties should operate with greater efficiency. But consider a reasonably large exurban county, Kitsap, across Puget Sound from Tacoma and Seattle. There the error rate in Rossi's favor is 14 votes in 10,000. Where is Republican outrage? If the same error rate prevailed for Gregoire in King County, where one-third of the ballots are cast, it would amount to 718 votes.

State Elections Director Nick Handy says other counties have reconsidered ballots and added them to the first or second recounts. King County's case stands out because of its size but the same legal principle prevails. Even so, Republicans went to court in Pierce County and stopped King County from tabulating 735 uncounted ballots.

To use Vance's rhetoric, Democrats are pursuing an "Armageddon"-type outcome that will "blow up" the state's election system. To the contrary, Democrats are advocating a cherished democratic value that every vote be counted. Like Asotin and Kitsap, discrepancies in King County do not confirm Vance's inflammatory charges. Such unusually harsh charges warrant verifiable evidence.

The real nuclear bomb in this election is one that can blow up civil society with obstreperous speech, leading to uncivil consequences. Most of us do not want our state "uglied" in like manner to Florida in 2000. We want to raise our children in an environment of respect for public institutions and respect for one another.