The P-I story, "Court rules against Gregoire" says the "state Supreme Court yesterday shot down Democratic gubernatorial candidate Christine Gregoire's best chance for a comeback, but the discovery of even more uncounted ballots in King County left Republicans livid." Shot down? Livid? And that's just the first sentence. The language stays on edge all the way through. Not to be outdone, the Times story asks, "Will Legislature pick governor?" and answers, "It could happen." Are you on the edge of your seat yet? The story descends into a discussion of legal and constitutional issues which should calm you down considerably. Then the story picks up some steam again with quote from Sen. Adam Kline, (D-Seattle) who claims there is "popular assumption" that Rossi has won the race, in part because of the Republican's careful postelection public-relations strategy. That, he said, will put Democrats "on very, very thin ice with the public" if lawmakers get involved in determining the outcome. "I would be very, very careful here," Kline said. "No matter how thoughtful and surgically precise we approached this, if we were seen publicly as trying to steal an election, the ill will we would invite would be worse than four years of Dino Rossi." Ill will?? In politics??? My gosh, that sounds just brutal! MAN UP ADAM!!! From King County Recount Ground Zero in Tukwila, another Times story tells us Rossi gains a few more votes" and "election workers had recently found 22 ballots in the pockets of voting machines already put in storage." Pockets left unemptied? You can imagine how the Republicans reacted to that. But that's not all: "Meanwhile, Logan yesterday found himself caught in another skirmish between Democrats and Republican over what constitutes an "overvote" — when a voter chooses more than one candidate. Such ballots are disqualified. The Democrats' recount director, David McDonald, said the number of overvotes in the manual recount of poll voters had nearly tripled, from 18 to 51, from an earlier machine count. But McDonald said in a letter to Logan that the rate of overvote designation dropped dramatically after Logan clarified instructions to counting teams Friday. The Democratic Party has asked that all potential overvotes be passed on to the canvassing board. But Vance said any change in the way overvotes are handled could unfairly boost Gregoire's prospects in the state's largest county." The bickering should continue until next Wednesday, when the Times says the recounting (is that a word?) will conclude in King County. If you still require some opinion on all this from a professional journalist, the Times also has, "Election '04: way outside the box." Finally, I am looking forward to my friend Sandeep's work in this week's Stranger. His recent article, "LOSE. RECOUNT. SPIN," had this: "But even if the Democrats are right that a hand recount will shift the vote tally in their favor--and that is a very big if--they will have won only part of the battle. What Democrats face now by fighting on is more than a political donnybrook, or even a legal struggle over recount procedures (both Democrats and Republicans have already brought lawsuits over aspects of the first two counts). They must also negotiate a public relations minefield." With the latest finds and disputes, I wonder what he'll be saying now.
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