Official Orders Recount in Washington State Race

The New York Times
November 18, 2004

Official Orders Recount in Washington State Race
By SARAH KERSHAW

SEATTLE, Nov. 17 - Washington's secretary of state said Wednesday that he would order a recount of the extraordinarily close race for governor here, ratcheting up the electoral turmoil that has for weeks roiled the contest for the state's highest office.

The race, between Christine Gregoire, 57, a Democrat who is the state attorney general, and Dino Rossi, 45, a Republican businessman and former state senator, has been surprisingly close for the past two weeks. With all 2.9 million votes counted Wednesday evening, Mr. Rossi was ahead by by 261 votes, triggering an automatic recount.

It was close down to the wire. On Tuesday evening, for example, the two candidates were separated by only 19 votes. Late Wednesday, with almost all of the 2.9 million votes counted, it was 48.87 percent to 48.87 percent, with Ms. Gregoire leading by only 28 votes at one point, and Mr. Rossi leading by 92 at another.

At a televised news conference in Olympia, the state capital, the secretary of state, Sam Reed, could barely contain a laugh when at 4:30 p.m. he announced the latest results and said he would officially order the counties to conduct a machine recount either later Wednesday night or early Thursday.

"We are doing everything we can to move this right along," he said. "The difference right now is 34 votes."

Mr. Reed, whose own election for office in 2000 was forced into a recount, said the closeness of this contest was highly unusual, even in a state where several races have prompted recounts. He said he expected a machine recount to be completed by next Wednesday.

Under state law, a winner must be declared by Dec. 2.

The candidates, who have both already begun assembling transition teams, held separate news conferences Wednesday night, Mr. Rossi at his campaign headquarters in Bellevue, east of Seattle, and Ms. Gregoire in downtown Seattle.

Mr. Rossi, surrounded by cheering supporters and family members, smiled broadly and said: "Well, it's a good night, it's definitely a good night. I just want to say that making history isn't easy, and it certainly isn't timely either."

He was upbeat but cautious.

"I'm on the right side of this first count," he said, "which is good."

Ms. Gregoire speaking to her own cheering supporters, said, "Some would say this in an election night without end."

Citing the closeness of the race and the constantly changing figures, she said: "We know how quickly things can change. This race is far from over and we're in it for the long haul."

There have been six other recounts in statewide elections here since 1968, and in 2000 a close election forced a recount in the United States Senate race between Maria Cantwell, the Democrat, and Slade Gorton, the Republican. Ms. Cantwell was declared the winner by 2,229 votes 24 days after the election.

None were so close that they went to a hand count and none ultimately changed the outcome of the initial results, elections and party officials say. But this one seems much harder to predict.

Washington state law requires a recount if the difference between the candidates is fewer than 2,000 votes and less than half of one percentage point. A hand recount is required if the margin is 150 or fewer votes.

A large number of the state's voters cast absentee ballots. Counting often continues well beyond Election Day because Washington allows voters to postmark their ballots as late as midnight on Election Day.

The recount was an extraordinary development given that Ms. Gregoire had long been expected to win comfortably, until the final days of the campaign when her opponent surged ahead. And Washingtonians, who have typically voted for Democrats for president, including Senator John Kerry by a wide margin, have not elected a Republican governor since 1984.

Democrats and Republicans alike said the virtual tie was itself not surprising. "This is the true nature of Washington State," said Chris Vance, the state Republican Party chairman, citing previous recounts. "This is the natural state of affairs."

The daily vote tallies inspired frenzied news reports and headlines in the local newspapers, like one Wednesday in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer that said "And our governor is. ..."

The last few days featured legal wrangling between the two parties, with Republicans challenging the validity of provisional ballots in heavily Democratic King County, which includes Seattle, and trying to block Democrats from access to the names on 929 provisional ballots. Provisional ballots include those cast by a voter who accidentally votes at the wrong polling place or whose name was not listed on the election roster.

A King County Superior Court judge sided with the Democrats, allowing the release of the names and saying the county must count the ballots the Republicans had challenged. In a ruling issued Tuesday, the judge, Dean S. Lum, wrote, "We have arrived at the moment which all reasonable Washingtonians have dreaded for four years: the moment when the court is asked to micromanage an election."

Brian Alexander contributed reporting for this article from Bellevue, and Eli Sanders from Seattle.