Court ends challenges to election

OLYMPIA – The state Supreme Court, tidying up legal remnants of Washington’s twisted 2004 governor’s race, on Thursday dismissed four challenges to Gov. Chris Gregoire’s narrow election victory.

In a 7-2 decision, justices ruled that three election challenges filed by individual voters did not have legal merit to proceed under state law. The fourth case, which had better legal footing, was dismissed because it mirrored the state Republican Party’s failed court case against the election.

Four Washingtonians filed the cases in January 2005, around the time Gregoire was declared the winner – by 129 votes – of a third statewide ballot count.

Her Republican opponent in the race, Dino Rossi, and the state GOP challenged the outcome in court.

Their case convinced Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges of Wenatchee that 1,678 illegal votes were cast in the election, out of 2.9 million. But Bridges said there wasn’t evidence of how those illegal voters marked their ballots.

Rossi declined to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

In Thursday’s ruling, the court dismissed a separate challenge from Suzanne D. Karr of Snohomish County as too closely mirroring the settled GOP case.