Endless race has Washington down for the count
As a third vote tally starts, the big question is not just who will win the governor's office, but when
Sunday, December 12, 2004
KATY MULDOON
So it goes for the folks planning next month's inaugural ball in Olympia, where nobody knows whether Washington's new governor will arrive looking terrific in a tux or glamorous in a gown.
Last week, election officials across the state began tabulating nearly 2.9 million votes for the third and final time in the most extraordinary governor's race in Washington's history. No one knows whether this hand count will be more or less accurate than the first recount, which was done by machine and put Republican Dino Rossi 42 votes ahead of Democrat Christine Gregoire.
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As Oregonians turn their weary backs on the most exhausting election season in recent memory and refresh with holiday cheer and television free of political ads, Washingtonians suffer. The 50-50 split at Washington's traditionally left-leaning ballot box has newspapers updating Web sites every few hours, radio programs jammed with recount talk, and TV stations, in a rare post-November twist, covering politics every day.
Some Washingtonians jeeringly dismiss the recount as a waste of time and money. Some say it's the only fair-and-square way out. Some just chuckle and give it an A for amusing.
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The stakes, however, run higher than that:
Will Rossi, 45, a self-made real-estate millionaire and former Senate budget chairman, be the first Republican in two decades to hang his hat in the governor's mansion? Or will the recount give Gregoire, 57 and a three-term state attorney general, what she needs to keep the Democratic streak alive?
With more than 2,000 agency directors and members of boards and commissions serving as governor appointees, will scores of longtime state employees get the boot?
Will The Evergreen State rename itself The State of Indecision, or Florida, Only Soggier, or Washington: All Love, No Guv?
"A month ago, I was living in Washington," said Seattle's John Carlson, a conservative talk-radio host who ran for governor in 2000. "Two weeks ago, I was living in Florida. Now, I wonder if, by the end of December, I'm going to be in Ukraine."
The hand recount, ordered Monday by Secretary of State Sam Reed, should be completed by Dec. 23. But legal challenges could delay the outcome. On Monday, the state Supreme Court is scheduled to consider a Democratic Party motion to reconsider previously invalidated ballots.
If the deadlock continues into the new year, then Gov. Gary Locke, who chose not to run for a third term, "will serve as long as he is needed," said Sharon Wallace, the governor's communications director.
Meanwhile, lawyers bicker. Internet bloggers chat about the recount endlessly, spewing more hot air than Mount St. Helens. Comedians make light.
Matt Dundas, a Seattle stand-up comic: "Does it bother anyone," he asks clubgoers, "that Dino Rossi is a creationist, yet he was named after a dinosaur?"
A bumper sticker making the Internet rounds replaces NO IRAQ WAR with NO GREG OIRE.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1102856178237980.xmlElection rules face Supreme Court test Monday
OLYMPIAN STAFF, NEWS SERVICES
Election workers will return to their tables Monday to continue the hand recount of votes cast for governor of Washington, but the count that might decide the election could come from the state Supreme Court chambers in Olympia.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Monday afternoon on the Democratic Party's lawsuit seeking to clarify ballot-counting rules. The suit asks that elections officials in at least four counties be forced to reconsider about 15,000 ballots that were rejected the first time around by canvassing boards.
The Democrats contend some of the ballots might have been rejected improperly.
Both sides realize that in the razor-thin race, the Supreme Court's decision might decide who becomes the next governor of Washington.
"It's a major development," said Mary Lane, campaign spokeswoman for Republican candidate Dino Rossi.
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http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20041212/_government/48201.shtmlRossi-Gregoire recount prompts accuracy debate
``We all know machines make fewer errors than humans -- and they don't need food or water, either, or a break!'' she says. Machine counts became the default system for counting ballots for good reason, she said.
``Do we really need this third count? I think we have to come to the point where we accept the computers' count.''
King County elections director Dean Logan says the hand count is daunting because so many people will be handling the county's 900,000 ballots, applying fallible human judgment.
Political scientists say they haven't solved the debate.
Smolka says either system should be fairly accurate, but that the consensus is ``you would bet on machine over hand recount. The error rate would probably be less. But that's no guarantee. And congressional researchers say every system is capable of doing a good job if used as intended.''
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http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/180658:hi:
Thanks for the kick Carl :kick: but you made me spill my coffee!