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Democrats Sue Wash. County Over Ballots
By PEGGY ANDERSEN, Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE - Washington state Democrats, fearful their candidate for governor might narrowly lose because of disputed ballots, sued election officials Friday in the state's largest county.
The lawsuit would block election officials in King County, home to Seattle, from discarding about 900 provisional ballots. Party officials hoped they could get a decision later in the day.
"We have one objective: Count every vote," said Paul Berendt, the state party chairman.
The legal wrangling is the result of the closest gubernatorial race in state history. As of Friday morning, Republican Dino Rossi led Democrat Christine Gregoire by about 3,600 votes out of over 2.7 million counted. The count could drag on into next week.
Counties estimated they have about 85,000 ballots left to count, mostly provisional ballots such as those that are the subject of the Democrats' lawsuit. King County has about 25,000 ballots left to count, mostly provisionals — which are essentially backup ballots that are cast when a resident's registration is in dispute.
Democrats demanded that King County not discard hundreds of provisional ballots and give the party — and the voters — a chance to fix technical problems, such as not signing the ballot envelope.
The move was criticized by Republicans, who said Democrats threatened to turn the gubernatorial election into "another Florida."
Thus far, the county has declined to count about 900 provisional ballots because they did not include a proper signature. The voters were being notified of the deficiency and have until Tuesday to submit the proper signature verification.
On the Net: Returns: http://www.vote.wa.gov