Revote challenge won’t get fast track

WENATCHEE – A Superior Court judge on Thursday put the brakes on Republicans’ rush to gather evidence for the court battle that they hope will oust Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges said that county election officials must continue to respond to Republicans’ requests for information – but not at triple-speed, which is what Republicans wanted.

“Your honor, it’s in the public’s interest to get on with this case,” lawyer Robert Maguire told the judge. “The public should see what happened with this election.”

Bridges said Republicans’ appeal to expedite the information-gathering invited “expedited chaos.”

“The old maxim that justice delayed is justice denied has a corollary,” he told the three rows of lawyers in the case. “That corollary is that justice hurried is also justice denied.”

The next – and bigger – court battle is set for Feb. 4 in Wenatchee, when Bridges will consider Democratic and county requests to dismiss the case or refer it to the Supreme Court or Legislature.

The stakes are huge. Republicans want the judge to declare the Nov. 2 governor’s election void, revoke Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire’s certificate of election and order a re-vote.

Republicans have “asked this court to do what no court has done in the history of this state or, according to our research, in the history of this nation,” said Democratic attorney Jenny Durkan.

Gregoire took office Jan. 12 after a hand count of the votes, finally winning by just 129 votes out of nearly 2.9 million cast. Republican Dino Rossi had narrowly won two earlier counts in the race, both by machines. Until the third count, he was on the verge of becoming the state’s first Republican governor in 20 years.

“We know who won this election,” Durkan said Thursday. “It’s been certified. There is a governor.”

David Pattison disagrees. A fisherman who lives in King County, he was one of a few protesters on the street outside the hearing. He held a revote sign and wore a jacket with the words “Jesus freak” on the back.

“If the voters are represented today, I believe there will be a revote,” he said.

Across the street was a 50-year-old Chelan County man who would identify himself only as Lew.

“Somebody’s bleeding for you in Iraq, tough guys,” he bellowed at the Republican protesters. His sign urged them to repent.

To accommodate the crowd of attorneys, observers and reporters, Bridges moved the hearing to an auditorium near the courthouse. Inside, the lawyers sat in a row three deep, with another 18 patched in on the phone. Behind them were curious members of the public: old couples, a couple of families with children, elderly men sitting with arms folded. Radio, TV and newspaper reporters spilled out of the jury box.

For weeks, Republicans have maintained that there were enough errors in this election to throw into doubt who really won the race. Republican staffers, volunteers and political allies have been combing court records and other documents, looking for evidence of election mistakes or fraud. They’re matching voters lists against state death records since 1967. They have crews combing courthouse records across the state to check out reports that felons voted. Republicans in California, New York and Pennsylvania are helping them find instances where people voted in two different states.

So far, they say, they’ve found nine people who were listed as dead and 37 felons who voted, as well as 10 people who apparently voted twice. Another 20 are believed to have voted – illegally – in two states. The GOP also says that hundreds of ballots were illegally put into voting machines without being checked to ensure that the voter was legitimate.

To expand the search, Republicans have asked all 39 of Washington’s counties to turn over large amounts of documents and election information. Among the requested information: audits, training materials, ballot security plans, any e-mails about ballot problems, historical information about past close races and lists of voters’ addresses and birthdates.

County election officials say that they’re overwhelmed by the requests for data, which could take weeks. Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton estimates that it will take five weeks to get Republicans all the information they’ve demanded. Small counties also said they don’t have the resources to defend themselves in this case, which – still in its infancy – involves dozens of attorneys and thousands of pages of documents. Some said their e-mail systems and computer servers have been overwhelmed with the volume of electronic documents.

Judge Bridges’ ruling Thursday means that counties must still answer the GOP’s request for information, but have 30 days to do it, instead of 10.

Democrats say that Republicans are on an expensive fishing expedition, one that taxpayers will pick up much of the tab for. Durkan said that for all Republicans’ searching, they’ve found very little – and nowhere near enough errors to prove that Rossi should have won.

“They believe it’s an octopus statute,” she told the judge. “All they have to do is squirt some ink into the water and make it look muddy … There is an overwhelming amount of paper and an underwhelming amount of proof.”