OLYMPIA – Washington Republicans, girding for a possible court challenge of Democrat Christine Gregoire’s razor-thin victory for governor, on Monday demanded a list of the 900,000 who cast ballots in vote-rich, problem-plagued King County.
Democrats accused the Republicans of being on “a fishing expedition” and urged them to concede or face the public’s wrath for dragging out an election already eight weeks old.
Republican state Chairman Chris Vance said his party and other backers of GOP candidate Dino Rossi have nagging questions about the vote count in the county that tipped the race to Gregoire by a scant 130 votes last week.
“We want to know who voted in the election, and it’s hard to know where we go from here (with a possible court challenge) before we get some answers,” Vance said in an interview.
“We’re mostly posing questions. King County is where we saw the votes changing. King County is the one county that was allowed to take ballots that were declared dead in November and bring them back to life in December.”
He stopped short of committing to a court challenge of the election results. Some party activists worry that further litigation and delay could backfire on the GOP and damage Rossi’s political future.
“I get the clear signal from Dino Rossi that he’s not going to do anything unless there is a solid case,” Vance said.
He declined to say whether he’s advising a court fight, but said “Overwhelmingly, from the grass roots of the party, the feeling is ‘Don’t give up. Keep fighting.’”
But he said there’s no rush, since any voter can contest the election within 10 days after certification.
“Right now, we need information. We don’t need to rush. Now that we’re past Christmas and past the shock (of losing in the latest recount), people are able to focus on what comes next.”
Secretary of State Sam Reed on Thursday will certify the latest recount, an unprecedented statewide hand tally that last week put three-term attorney general Gregoire ahead by 130 votes out of more than 2.8 million cast. Previous counts had favored Rossi, an affluent former state senator.
Reed’s office said outgoing Gov. Gary Locke offered to send a state airplane to McMinnville, Ore., to fetch Reed so he could certify the election on Monday.
“We said ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’” said Reed spokeswoman Trova Hutchins. “We’ll certify on Thursday.
“We really see the certification by the counties as the relevant thing, and that has already taken place. What we are doing at the state level will be more ceremonial. Our view is that the race is over now. The only way we could veer off that course is if the courts ordered us to do something different.”
The latest tally included 732 disputed ballots from King County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Seattle and nearly a third of the state electorate.
Those ballots were challenged by the GOP, but the state Supreme Court last week ruled that the county could legally consider them. The ballots had been mistakenly thrown out because of problems scanning signatures into a computer.
The Republicans’ latest demand came as a public records request filed with King County Elections Director Dean Logan. The GOP wants a list of all voters who submitted ballots in the Nov. 2 general election, including ballots that were counted as well as those that were rejected.
They also asked for policies about military and overseas ballots.
Carolyn Duncan, spokeswoman for King County Executive Ron Sims, said the county will “do our best to meet the disclosure request in a timely manner.
“We had an open and transparent process, and observers from both parties were allowed to interrupt the count when they had a question.”
Rossi and Gregoire stayed out of the public eye Monday. Rossi’s campaign organized a news conference for Vance; Dan Brady, Rossi’s lead election and recount observer in King County; and campaign attorney Peter Schalestock.
They described a variety of irregularities and said hundreds of ballots were permanently altered by election workers, making it impossible to go back and see what the voter intent was.
“It was chaos,” Vance said. “These ballots were counted different ways, different times, by different people.”
Vance said the party has collected affidavits from 300 Rossi voters across the state who say their ballots mistakenly went uncounted. He urged county officials to reconsider those ballots.
Democrats scoffed at the GOP disclosure demand.
“It’s a fishing expedition,” said Democratic state Chairman Paul Berendt. “The Republicans are fighting shadows. They don’t really have an issue to press. They know a challenge in the courts would have to be based on fraud or gross negligence, neither of which is the case here. So they’re blocked in, looking for any angle at all.”
He warned Rossi and the GOP against stretching out the election even longer.
“If they go to court again to contest the most vetted election in Washington state history, they will look like obstructionists and the public will turn on them quickly.”
Gregoire spokesman Morton Brilliant said nearly all questioned ballots were decided by bipartisan panels without argument.
“Republicans and Democrats alike are saying this thing is over now. Sen. Rossi will have to decide what he does next.”
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