WENATCHEE – A Leavenworth woman’s vote for Dino Rossi – which almost didn’t count – shows why King County should be allowed to tally several hundred mistakenly rejected ballots in the race for governor, a Wenatchee lawyer has argued.
Attorney Russ Speidel, in a brief opposing the Republicans’ bid to keep King County from counting several hundred disputed ballots, outlined the saga of Nancy Johnson’s ballot.
Her ballot was initially rejected because Chelan County officials thought she had voted twice. It turns out there were two Nancy Johnsons with Leavenworth post office boxes who mailed in absentee ballots, causing a mix-up, The Wenatchee World reported Saturday.
Johnson’s ballot was counted Wednesday after the county canvassing board ruled that the county’s error led to the earlier rejection, the newspaper said.
Speidel says that illustrates why King County should be able to count 723 ballots that weren’t originally tallied because of mistakes by election staff.
“That is a denial of the equal protection clause under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” he said.
On Friday, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend ruled for the Republicans. She said it was simply too late for counties to reconsider ballots from the Nov. 2 election even if such ballots were erroneously rejected by election workers.
However, Democrats have appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court. Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said Democrats support Chelan County’s fix and will highlight the case in their appeal.
| More than 100 people gathered Sunday outside Republican Dino Rossi’s campaign headquarters in Bellevue to protest the recount of the governor’s race.
In a battle of signs and slogans, Democrats said Republicans are trying to keep legitimate votes from being counted in the statewide hand recount. Rossi supporters demanded that only previously counted ballots be tabulated in this round. Associated Press |
Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane said Johnson’s ballot should not have been counted, and neither should the hundreds in question in King County.
State Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerry Alexander said the high court is prepared to take up the case this week.
Republican Rossi holds an overall lead of 50 votes in the manual recount of his contest with Democrat Christine Gregoire. With or without the hundreds of ballots at issue, the recount of King County’s 900,000 ballots could tip results in Gregoire’s favor.
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