SEATTLE – A judge on Friday ordered King County elections officials to turn over the names of 929 voters whose provisional ballots are in dispute. State Democrats said they planned to contact those listed to ensure that their votes count.
Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt said volunteers would work through the weekend to contact the voters.
“We’re up to it,” he said. “We’ve had hundreds of people volunteer to help.”
Every vote is crucial in the state’s tight race for governor. Republican Dino Rossi was leading Democrat Christine Gregoire by 1,920 votes on Friday, and King County voters lean heavily Democratic.
After about an hour of arguments by attorney David Burman, representing the Democrats, and assistant prosecutor Janine Joly, King County Superior Court Judge Dean Lum declared a 10-minute recess, and then said it would burden the county little to release the names, and that state law favors openness in government.
“No right is more precious than the right to vote,” he said.
He gave the county an hour to turn over the names and scheduled a further hearing for Tuesday.
The list was provided “with minutes to spare,” party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said.
State election results are to be certified on Wednesday. The county deadline for voters to resolve problems with their ballots is 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The Democrats’ lawsuit was criticized by Republicans, who said it threatened to turn the close gubernatorial election into “another Florida.”
“Why was this not a problem a week ago when Gregoire was ahead?” asked Pat Herbold, chairman of the King County Republican Party. The GOP did not question the process in 2000, when Republican Sen. Slade Gorton lost his post to Democrat Maria Cantwell, she said.
“It would be wonderful if Christine Gregoire would step up to the plate like John Kerry did, for the good of our state, and say, ‘We accept the results,’” Herbold said.
Berendt said there is no way to tell who the voters supported. But the lawsuit notes that provisional voters in King County are statistically more likely to support Gregoire than those in other counties.
The county mails notices to voters when there are problems with absentee ballots such as a missing signature or questions about registration.
But those casting provisional ballots were required to call the county or get on its Web site to determine if their votes were in jeopardy. The process was a lot more complicated for voters who failed to save the stub from their ballot envelope with the reference number needed for the county help line and Web site.
Provisional ballots are used primarily when voters are not at their home precincts or if registration is in question.
At the hearing, Joly defended the lack of outreach for provisional voters, saying they were aware that their ballots were questionable and that they needed to follow up.
The Democrats’ lawsuit asked that elections officials provide the list of voters or contact the voters themselves.
Burman said those casting provisional ballots were being denied equal protection under the law. He said the county Web site did not indicate until this week that provisional voters could correct errors.
The ballots were questioned for three primary reasons: the signature did not match registration records, there was no record that the voter was registered, or the voter had already mailed in an absentee ballot.
The only voter named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, Aravind Swaminathan, went to the county offices Thursday and resolved the problem with his ballot, county spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said.
About 31,000 provisional ballots were cast in King County.
Statewide, counties estimated they have about 54,000 ballots left to count, mostly provisional ballots.
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