Rossi (Rep.) Apparent Winner By 261 Votes; Recount Next (WA State Gov.)

[Mrs. Overall]

http://www.komotv.com/stories/34018.htm

OLYMPIA - Republican Dino Rossi's tiny lead over Democrat Christine Gregoire in the closest governor's race in Washington state history triggered an automatic recount Wednesday.

Rossi held a 261-vote lead - out of 2.8 million ballots cast - after counties reported their final tallies to the state. Rossi had 1,371,414 votes, while Gregoire had 1,371,153.

"Making history isn't easy," Rossi said, smiling broadly as he spoke to reporters outside his Bellevue campaign headquarters Wednesday night.

State law requires an automatic recount when the margin of victory is less than 2,000 votes. In 40 years, no statewide recount has reversed the election outcome - but there's never been a governor's race this close before.

"We're going to make sure, in this recount, every single vote counts," Gregoire vowed. "This is not about Republican or Democrat, Libertarian or Independent, this is about all of us as Washingtonians, standing up, casting our ballots."

[George_S]

1. Rossi, like Bush, has a mandate.

[mrbassman03]

10. I thought they were against gay relationships...

Sorry, couldn't help it... saw it here earlier.

[glitch]

2. I sent Chris Gregoire an email asking her to request manual recounts

in at least a few counties, but especially King. Here's the address of her campaign website: [e-mail]

[noonriser]

6. Thanks for the inspiration and email address, I sent this

Dear Ms. Gregoire:

As one of your supporters, a progressive democrat, I implore you to approach this recount with an offensive stance.
Please demand a manual recount to make absolutely certain that electronic voting fraud cannot interfere with
the peoples' vote in Washington State. My major concern, as a Washington citizen, is that the companies that produce the computer voting machines are owned and operated by Republican supporters and huge fundraisers for the Republican party--hardly nonpartisan. I am not sure how much of our voting system relies on electronic voting machines, but my assumption is that we utilize optical scanning machines at a minimum. These systems are of great concern to me regarding their accuracy and vulnerability to hacking.

Please demand manual recounts so that we can all be assured that the final result is a true result and democracy
has not been compromised! Thank you!

Best Regards,

"noonriser"

[glitch]

7. Excellent! nt

[jimmyp]

3. So, when

does the recount begin?

[Mrs. Overall]

5. According to the news article:

Reed (Sec. of State) said the final results could change, and lawsuits may ensue.

Reed said the machine recount should start Thursday and finish by next Wednesday.

[Hard Attack]

4. Again, someone contact George Carlin and tell him this.

George Carlin (the comedian) was on TV pimping his book 2 weeks before the elections saying 'Don't vote, it doesn't count'.

[satya]

8. Manual Recount in King County

King County Recount

I, too, emailed Gregoire and Paul Berendt requesting a manual recount; according to the King County website, they will be manually recounting. They expect to finish by December 1.

[ahimsa]

9. Not clear from the web site..

..whether it will be a hand recount. It just says they are preparing for one. Note the last paragraph below:

Excerpt from King County web site 

“I want to commend King County Election staff on a job well done,” said Dean Logan, director of Records, Elections and Licensing Services. “Our focus now will be to prepare for a recount of all the ballots.”

To prepare for a hand recount, election officials are working to put procedures in place to begin recounting the Governor’s race beginning at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21.

<snip>

Since King County has the greatest number of ballots to recount, Logan expects a hand recount of 898,238 ballots to take about 10 days. The preliminary schedule is to work Sunday, Nov.21 through Wednesday, Nov. 24 and resume counting after the Thanksgiving Day holiday. At this rate, King County expects to finish the hand recount Wednesday, Dec.1.

Election officials estimate a machine recount would take between 4 to 5 days and start at 8 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 20 and conclude on Wednesday, November 24.

[satya]

11. You're right, ahimsa n/t

[satya]

12. Sam Reed said the machines would be reprogrammed before the recount?

The Secretary of State website says he's called for a machine recount.

I heard him say on the radio this evening that all the machines would have to be "reprogrammed" first. Anybody else hear anything about that? Is this the software upgrade that was supposed to take place before the general?

[RedEagle]

13. Unfortunately this is in WA law

They only want to count that race.

Which is really a waste of an auditing opportunity.

Besides the issue that the programming should not be changed.

Six counties conducted the primaries and general election with uncertified software.

[genieroze]

14. How many e votes were there?