Court asked to reject ‘new’ ballots
SEATTLE – As election officials get ready to count the votes for governor a third time, lawyers for the Democratic and Republican state parties are getting ready to take their battle to the state Supreme Court.
Republican Dino Rossi is technically the governor-elect: He won the closest statewide election in Washington history by 261 votes in the first count and by 42 votes in the first, machine recount.
Democrats hope a hand recount of the 2.9 million ballots cast could turn the tide and make Attorney General Christine Gregoire the winner.
The big question now is whether the hand recount will include a reconsideration of previously rejected ballots. That’s what Democrats want, and they’ve petitioned the Supreme Court to make it so. Republicans argue this recount should include only ballots that have already been validated and counted – no “new” ballots.
On Tuesday, Rossi and the state GOP asked the Supreme Court to reject the Democrats’ motion, saying the push to reconsider previously rejected ballots would “wreak havoc” on this and future elections.
“The law is quite clear that a recount is a ‘retabulation’ of valid votes and does not include those ballots that the canvassing boards rejected,” the Republicans’ brief said.
“This is all about not changing the rules,” Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane said Tuesday. “This process needs to go forward by the book.”
Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost countered that the lawsuit is really about counting every vote.
“Democrats are talking about the rights of individuals to have their votes counted,” Brost said. “An election isn’t a test for voters – government should ensure that all legal votes are counted.”
The Democrats’ motion to the Supreme Court said mistakes and inconsistencies in the initial vote counting should be reviewed and corrected.
Republicans also gleefully pointed out old cases in which Gregoire, as attorney general, advised against considering invalidated ballots in a recount. A November 1996 memo from the secretary of state’s office regarding a close legislative race says: “We are advised by the attorney general that state law makes no provision for the challenge of ballots or voters (as provided in RCW 29.10.125) during the recount.”
Brost said that memo referred to legal advice from previous state attorneys general, not from Gregoire.
The Supreme Court is expected to accept the case and decide quickly, but a hearing has not been scheduled. Time is of the essence, as the inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 12.
Officials say the hand recount should be complete by Dec. 23. If the Supreme Court grants the Democrats’ request to reconsider invalidated ballots, officials say the governor’s race will stretch into 2005.
Gregoire, 57, the state’s three-term attorney general, is best known for her successful battle with the tobacco industry. Rossi, 45, is a self-made millionaire and a former state Senate budget chairman.
Meanwhile, election officials across the state are busy hiring temporary workers and getting ready for the tedious and time-consuming work of the hand recount.
On Tuesday, King County moved 900,000 ballots to an office in Tukwila that will serve as the hand-recount center. The boxes of ballots were loaded into trucks, under the watchful eyes of an armed police escort and the ever-present political observers.