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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>From today’s (December 14, 2004) Spokesman Review.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>'Found' ballots may tip election to Gregoire <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>561 votes wrongly disqualified in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">Washington</st1:State></st1:place> governor's contest<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Richard Roesler<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Staff writer<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>December 14, 2004<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>OLYMPIA</span></font></st1:City><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> –
After weeks of trailing Gov.-elect Dino Rossi in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>'s still ultra-close gubernatorial
election, Democratic candidate Christine Gregoire got a big dose of good news
Monday.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>As Republican and Democratic lawyers prepared to argue
before the state Supreme Court over the rules for this, the third count in the
race, a buzz went through the courtroom. Election officials in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">King</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
– one of Gregoire's strongest areas of support – incorrectly had
disqualified 561 ballots.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"These are registered voters. They did everything
they're supposed to do," said state elections director Nick Handy, sitting
in the courtroom's second row. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Normally, such an error in a county with nearly 900,000
ballots to count might prompt some embarrassing news coverage and a few
after-the-fact procedural changes. But in this case, with Republican Rossi
winning the last recount by just 42 votes, fixing that one error could reverse
the race and land Gregoire in the governor's seat.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Here's how: If all those votes are ruled valid and they
mirror the voting pattern in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">King</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> as a whole –
58 percent Gregoire, 40 percent Rossi – Gregoire would gain 98 more votes
than Rossi.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>As the news spread Monday, Republicans were angry –
and worried.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"Once again, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">King</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> finds more votes.
At some point, you start wondering whether it's gross incompetence or blatant
voter fraud," said state GOP Chairman Chris Vance. "Obviously we're
unhappy ... Somebody needs to lose their job over this."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>King County Elections Director Dean Logan – also in
the crowd at the court hearing – said that the absentee ballots were
rejected because there was no match in the county's computers for the
signatures on the ballot envelopes. In such cases, workers are supposed to pull
the paper voter registration form and compare the signatures that way.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"These should have been set aside and manually
checked," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>In this case, however, workers just stuck the hundreds of
ballots in a pile of rejected ballots. The error was discovered Sunday
afternoon when one very politically minded voter – King County Councilman
Larry Phillips – volunteered to track down people whose votes hadn't been
counted. He picked up a list and a map.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"I went through the first page or two, and No. 10 on
the list was this very familiar guy: Lawrence R. Phillips," he said.
"That's me."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>But Phillips had apparently done everything right. He'd
voted, signed the envelope, put a stamp on it and mailed it in a week before
the election.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"And valid ballots like mine were just dumped in with
the (rejected) others," he said. "We played by the rules. I think
people like me will be justifiably furious if these votes are not
counted."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Logan</span></font></st1:place></st1:City><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> said that
the ballots will be reviewed Wednesday and those that are valid will be counted.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"We take full responsibility," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Vance said that Republican lawyers are researching what, if
anything, can be done about the hundreds of new ballots.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"It just seems odd that this always seems to happen in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">King</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>,"
said Rossi spokeswoman <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Mary Lane</st1:address></st1:Street>.
"Nothing's ever settled."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Also unsettled Monday night was the Supreme Court case.
Democrats, who say election workers made many mistakes in this election, want
the court to order county election officers to reconsider thousands of ballots
that had been ruled invalid. The Democratic Party says counties set different
deadlines, used different standards to judge ballot validity, ignored voter
complaints and did a poor job of telling voters how they could "fix"
a ballot and ensure that it was counted.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"There have been mistakes made," Democrat attorney
David Burman told the court. And in this third count, he said, Democrats want
those mistakes fixed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"How are we ever going to get to finality in
elections?" asked <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Justice</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Bobbe</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Bridge</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.
"...Is every voter supposed to take a lawyer down to where they
vote?"<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Republicans say Democrats just want to change the rules of
an election they've been losing.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"Your election law is not a blank coloring book to be
filled in at the desire of a candidate because they don't like the way an
election is going," said Mark Braden, an attorney for the Republicans.
"... Do not change the rules now, in the middle of the process."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Gregoire has kept her distance from the lawsuit. Unlike
Rossi, she's not named as a party in the suit, although it's obviously aimed at
helping her win the governorship. In a recent interview with The
Spokesman-Review, she said she'd never even seen the court petition laying out
the Democrats' case.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Still, she said, she supports the lawsuit.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"What you have is a situation here where you have
legitimate votes that have not been counted," she said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The three counts have stretched the race out well beyond the
Nov. 2 Election Day, but Gregoire said that it's more important to have the
race settled authoritatively.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"This is a couple-of-week delay for four years of
legitimacy," she said. "We need to put this to rest. People need to
believe and feel good about the election system of the state of <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"Two years from now," she predicted, "this
delay will be completely forgotten."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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