Demo leader says King County makes Gregoire winner
09:57 PM PST on Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Associated Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. - Democratic State Party Chairman Paul Berendt says recount results from King County give Democrat Christine Gregoire an eight-vote victory over Republican Dino Rossi in the governor's race.
The report is very preliminary, and neither King County nor the Republican Party can immediately confirm the hand recount results.
But if the Democrats' analysis is right, it's a stunning reversal of fortune in the closest governor's race in Washington history. Rossi won the first count by 261 votes and won the machine recount by 42 votes.
AP
Dwight Pelz, left, holds up a ballot as he and Dean Logan, center, and Dan Satterberg, right, try to determine voter intent on 1,627 King County ballots, Monday, Dec. 20, 2004, in Seattle. Observing behind the Canvassing Board members are Diane Tebelius, left back, a Republican, Will Rava, a Democrat, and Brad Henry, a Libertarian.
Berendt and Democratic party officials reached the conclusion after crunching numbers supplied by King County, and adding in 320 ballots that were considered during a meeting today of the county's canvassing board.
King County, which includes Seattle, has finished tallying its 900-thousand ballots, but election officials say they still need to reconcile differences in the precinct totals before formally releasing its results tomorrow.
Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane says Republicans are looking at the data but have not drawn any conclusions.
Rossi had been leading by a slim margin throughout the recount, but King County, the state's most populous county, is a Gregoire stronghold. All of the state's 38 other counties reported their tallies earlier.
Meanwhile, Berendt says Democrats will continue to fight to allow King County to include 723 newly discovered ballots in the recount. The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in a lawsuit over those ballots tomorrow.
The question before the court is whether King County should be allowed to add those ballots to the recount even though they weren't counted originally because of mistakes made by county election workers.
Rossi has indicated he may challenge the election results in court if he loses the hand recount after winning the first two counts.
09:57 PM PST on Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Associated Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. - Democratic State Party Chairman Paul Berendt says recount results from King County give Democrat Christine Gregoire an eight-vote victory over Republican Dino Rossi in the governor's race.
The report is very preliminary, and neither King County nor the Republican Party can immediately confirm the hand recount results.
But if the Democrats' analysis is right, it's a stunning reversal of fortune in the closest governor's race in Washington history. Rossi won the first count by 261 votes and won the machine recount by 42 votes.
AP
Dwight Pelz, left, holds up a ballot as he and Dean Logan, center, and Dan Satterberg, right, try to determine voter intent on 1,627 King County ballots, Monday, Dec. 20, 2004, in Seattle. Observing behind the Canvassing Board members are Diane Tebelius, left back, a Republican, Will Rava, a Democrat, and Brad Henry, a Libertarian.
Berendt and Democratic party officials reached the conclusion after crunching numbers supplied by King County, and adding in 320 ballots that were considered during a meeting today of the county's canvassing board.
King County, which includes Seattle, has finished tallying its 900-thousand ballots, but election officials say they still need to reconcile differences in the precinct totals before formally releasing its results tomorrow.
Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane says Republicans are looking at the data but have not drawn any conclusions.
Rossi had been leading by a slim margin throughout the recount, but King County, the state's most populous county, is a Gregoire stronghold. All of the state's 38 other counties reported their tallies earlier.
Meanwhile, Berendt says Democrats will continue to fight to allow King County to include 723 newly discovered ballots in the recount. The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in a lawsuit over those ballots tomorrow.
The question before the court is whether King County should be allowed to add those ballots to the recount even though they weren't counted originally because of mistakes made by county election workers.
Rossi has indicated he may challenge the election results in court if he loses the hand recount after winning the first two counts.