OLYMPIA, Wash. – A hand recount in the Democratic stronghold of King County appears to have boosted Democrat Christine Gregoire to an astonishing come-from-behind victory in the Washington governor’s race.
With King County reporting results and the statewide hand recount all but complete, Gregoire held a 10-vote margin over Republican Dino Rossi, out of 2.9 million ballots cast. Rossi won the first two counts.
The results do not include 700-plus belatedly discovered ballots from King County, home of Seattle. The state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that those ballots should be counted. They will be added to the total on Thursday, and are expected to favor Gregoire.
The election results are not official. They will likely be challenged in court.
“This battle is not over,” State GOP Chairman Chris Vance said. “This election is not over.”
Gregoire, 57, a three-term attorney general, was the favorite going into the election against Rossi, 45, a real estate agent and former state senator.
But Rossi suprised political experts by squeaking out a 261-vote win over Gregoire. His lead was whittled to 42 votes in a subsequent machine recount.
Democrats paid $730,000 for the hand recount, though by law the state has to repay the party if the recount reverses the results.
Gregoire won another victory on Wednesday when the state Supreme Court ruled that King County should include hundreds of recently discovered ballots in the hand recount of the still-undecided governor’s race.
“There is a sacred American right to have legitimate votes counted,” Gregoire said in a news release after the ruling. “The justices recognized that principle today.”
Republicans said they will now seek out Rossi voters whose ballots were disqualified because of election workers’ errors and fight to have those ballots counted as well.
“We’ll be taking them to canvassing boards in counties across the state and asking those canvassing boards to review their decisions and to consider these ballots,” Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane said.
King County officials discovered last week that up to 735 ballots had not been counted because of mistakes made by election workers.
At a hearing Wednesday morning before the high court, Republicans argued that a recount should be a mere retabulation, and that it was too late for counties to go back and correct errors.
Harry Korrell, a lawyer for the Republican Party, said counting those votes would cause irreparable harm, but justices questioned who would be hurt.
“You’re looking at it from the point of view of the winner or the loser shouldn’t we be looking at it from the point of view of the voter?” asked Justice Susan Owens.
Ruling within a few hours of hearing the case, the court unanimously said state law and previous court rulings specifically allow county canvassing boards to correct mistakes during a recount.
The lawsuit was brought by King County, the state Democratic Party and the office of Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican.
After the Secretary of State certifies the election, which is expected Thursday, any registered voter can sue to challenge the results. Republicans have already begun preparing for possible legal action, and Rossi has repeatedly said he’ll keep all his options open.
If the legal fighting does not produce a new governor by the scheduled Jan. 12 inauguration, lame-duck Gov. Gary Locke, a Democrat, may have to stick around. A provision of the state constitution says the governor’s term of office is four years “and until his successor is elected and qualified.”
Locke has made it clear he is not interested in hanging around.
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On the Net:
Recount results: http://www.vote.wa.gov
Supreme Court: http://www.courts.wa.gov
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