- The Nov. 2 ballots were counted, and the Republican candidate, state Sen. Dino Rossi, won by 261 votes. That triggered an automatic machine recount.
- Rossi won the machine recount by just 42 votes. Democrat candidate Christine Gregoire, the 12-year attorney general, sought a hand recount. The Democrats paid for it, knowing that if the results changed, the state woulf refund the money.
- Gregoire won the hand recount by 129 votes, including some votes from a set of almost 800 ballots in King County that had previously uncounted. Even without the King County votes, which were allowed to be counted by the state Supreme Court, Gregoire led by 10 votes.
- Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, certified Gregoire the winner on Dec. 20. She is set to be inaugurated Jan. 12. Meanwhile, Reed has been chastised by his fellow Republicans for not doing more to help Rossi.
- Rossi and other prominent Republicans (notably Ralph Munro, former secretary of state, and Slade Gorton, a U.S. senator who lost a 2000 re-election by a very slim margin) have called for a new election. State law allows this if fraud or other improprieties can be determined in court.
Keep in mind that a new election is just that -- a new election, not a re-vote of the same candidates. Anyone would be eligible to run. Gregoire would be able to run as governor if, in fact, she is sworn in Jan. 12. And the Democrat-controlled legislature is unlikely to stop that.
My take: Gregoire won. Or at least we think she did. No election is perfect. There is not much in the way that is compelling to support setting aside the Nov. 2 election. What makes anyone think a second election would be any more clear?
And so we wait and watch history in the making, right here in Chelan County.
-- Wenatchee, Wash.
1 comment:
Heh... interesting reading, i'll be linking to it later tonight.
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