More suspense the only sure bet in governor's election

By REBECCA COOK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER   18 November 2004

OLYMPIA Election officials are preparing to recount 2.8 million ballots by next Wednesday in the closest governor's race in Washington state history.

But we still might not know who the next governor is for sure by Thanksgiving. Try Christmas.

State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt is already talking about ordering a second, hand recount of the votes. "We see this as a two-recount process," he said.

Buckle up - it's going to be a long, bumpy ride.

Republican Dino Rossi, a two-term state senator, finished 261 votes ahead of Democratic Attorney General Christine Gregoire when all the counties reported all their votes on Wednesday night. If Rossi wins he would be the state's first Republican governor in 20 years. State law requires a machine recount because the margin is less than 2,000 votes.  
Recounts in Washington state typically give more votes to the original winner, and no statewide recount has reversed the results of an election. But with just 261 votes separating the two candidates, all bets are off.

"Historically, recounts have not changed the outcomes of major elections," Secretary of State Sam Reed said Thursday. "If people are pulling for the Attorney General, I would say don't get your hopes up too high. But mathematically it certainly is possible (for the results to change). So Sen. Rossi's people shouldn't feel like they've got it clinched."

Both campaigns and both parties plan to station observers in every county and will have lawyers on-call, as they did on Election Day.

"We will keep our eyes out for any irregularities and do our best to make sure every vote gets counted," said Gregoire campaign spokesman Morton Brilliant. "However long this process takes, it will be worth it."

Gregoire declared the race a "virtual tie" on Wednesday and spent Thursday working with her campaign staff and transition team. Rossi flew to New Orleans early Thursday to spend a day meeting his possible future colleagues at the Republican Governors Association meeting.

Vote totals may change in the recount for several reasons. Fourteen counties in Washington use punchcard ballots. A second trip through vote-counting machines will likely break off some hanging chads - those little bits of paper left dangling when voters fail to punch their ballots forcefully enough, made infamous by the 2000 presidential election in Florida.

Fill-in-the-bubble ballots, technically called optical scan ballots, could register more or fewer votes the second time around depending on how the machines interpret bubbles that are lightly filled in.

"The machines are pretty touchy," Reed said.

The three counties that use electronic touch-screen voting will print out the results and scan them just like fill-in-the-bubble ballots.

On Thursday and Friday, election officials were rounding up workers for the recount, organizing ballots and resetting the machines to count only the governor's race. The actual recount begins Saturday.

"There is a certain amount of fatigue," said King County Elections Director Dean Logan, noting that election staffers have been scrambling since September, when the state instituted a new primary. "The resolve of the staff is pretty good. They're up to this."

Republicans are still suspicious of the votes in King County, and rumors fueled by an anonymous e-mail have been swirling about various electoral shenanigans there. But no one has stepped forward with a shred of proof of any wrongdoing.

"That's sadly what you see when there's high emotions in a close race," Logan said. "The election has been conducted in a very transparent manner."

State GOP Chairman Chris Vance said angry Republicans called his office screaming on Wednesday, convinced the election was about to be "stolen."

"If we thought there was something to fight, we would fight," Vance said. But so far, nothing substantial has surfaced.

Vance warned of trouble if the recount puts Gregoire ahead of Rossi: "If this election turns over, I'm going to have a hard time keeping Republicans calm."

Ongoing suspense is perhaps the only sure thing in this election. After the machine recount is done, the state will certify the results of the election on Dec. 2. After that, the candidates or the state parties can demand a hand recount or another machine recount. They would have to pay $420,000 for a machine recount or $700,000 for a hand recount, unless the recount changes the winner, in which case taxpayers get the tab.