Provisional Ballots May Decide Governor

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By By KOMO Staff & News Services

Summary

Republican Dino Rossi held a lead of about 3,500 votes Wednesday in the nation's last unsettled governor's race.

Story Published: Nov 11, 2004 at 12:08 AM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 1:36 AM PDT

Provisional Ballots May Decide Governor
OLYMPIA - Republican Dino Rossi clung to a narrow lead in the nation's last unsettled governor's race - about 3,500 out of 2.7 million ballots counted.

Both sides said the election apparently will be settled by the 80,000 or so voters who used provisional ballots, including about 30,000 in Democrat Christine Gregoire's stronghold, King County.

On Wednesday, for the second day in a row, Rossi, the former state Senate budget chairman, maintained a slim advantage over Gregoire, the state attorney general, even as some of her best counties reported.

Rossi began the day with a pad of about 3,000 votes. As votes were announced by counties where he has led, Rossi pulled ahead with each new report, at one point leading by 7,259 votes.

One of the eight counties that have been Gregoire territory, traditionally Democratic Grays Harbor, flipped to Rossi by a few hundred votes out of about 32,000 counted. Neighboring Pacific was narrowly for Gregoire; Mason County was Rossi's.

When King County and other Gregoire-leaning counties reported, Rossi's lead shrank to under 2,900, and then built back up to 3,492 as other counties tallied votes.

Counting the votes cast for Libertarian nominee Ruth Bennett, about 2.7 million ballots have been counted, for a turnout of 79 percent.

After about 80,000 new votes were tallied Wednesday, the count was 1,326,793 votes for Rossi, 1,323,301 for Gregoire, and 59,808 for Bennett.

The election ended in a virtual tie last Tuesday and neither candidate has put the race away as hundreds of thousands of mail ballots have been tallied.

Counties estimated that 85,000 ballots remain to be counted, many of them provisional ballots that were cast by voters away from their home precinct or that involved disputed registration or the possibility of multiple voting. The Rossi campaign said the counties' estimates may be understated, and that some counties didn't include provisional ballots in the estimate.

Both camps said Wednesday's count was predictable, and that the race probably will go on until the final provisional ballots are counted next Wednesday. That is also the deadline for counties to certify their results.

A recount is automatic if the gap is less than 2,000 votes.

"We're encouraged by where we are at the end of the day," said Gregoire spokesman Morton Brilliant. "We're strongly encouraged that Rossi's percentage in King County was only 37 percent."

Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane said the Rossi campaign is satisfied, too.

"It's a good day for us," she said. "We had assumed that after King County, we would fall behind, and we're not behind. We're feeling good about it. We're still in the game."

In King, Gregoire has piled up a margin of 146,681 votes, 485,235 to Rossi's 338,554. She gained nearly 12,000 votes on Wednesday and Rossi picked up another 7,500.

Rossi continued to gain votes throughout Eastern Washington and counties that Lane characterized as GOP-leaning or "lunch-bucket Democrat" like Grays Harbor and Kitsap.

Gregoire now is carrying seven of the state's 39 counties: Cowlitz, Jefferson, King, Pacific, San Juan, Thurston and Whatcom.

A number of election-watchers said their mathematical models indicate a narrow Rossi victory, ranging from 750 to perhaps 5,000 votes.

But state elections official John Pearson cautioned that the predictions could be thrown off by inaccurate projections of how the final absentee votes will break and how many provisional ballots are actually counted and whom they benefit.

Still, Lane said, "Overall, we think things are looking good - there are still more outstanding ballots in pro-Rossi counties than in pro-Gregoire counties."