The Dish On Why King County Can Count Those 595 Votes

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By By KOMO Staff & News Services

Summary

While the State Supreme Court ruled that counties can't be forced to count previously rejected votes, counties can of their own accord.

Story Published: Dec 14, 2004 at 3:45 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 1:48 AM PDT

The Dish On Why King County Can Count Those 595 Votes
OLYMPIA - In the ongoing saga of the closest governor's race in Washington state history, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a motion to force county canvassing boards to reconsider every rejected absentee and provisional ballot during the hand recount.

"Ballots are to be 'retabulated' only if they have been previously counted or tallied," Chief Justice Gerry Alexander wrote in the unanimous decision. The ruling is available online, at www.courts.wa.gov.

Clear enough. But at the same time, King County elections officials said as many as 595 ballots had not been counted because of mistakes by election workers.

On Tuesday night, an election official said 22 more ballots had been found in addition to the previous 573.

King County Elections Director Dean Logan said those ballots should be counted, and the county canvassing board will decide their fate on Wednesday.

The two events have a lot of people wondering why King County can add those ballots to the hand recount when they haven't been "previously counted," in the words of the court.

The answer lies in state law. Existing law gives county canvassing boards the power to recanvass, or reconsider, any ballots during a count or a recount. They just have to do it before the election is certified. While the election results from the first, machine recount were certified Nov. 30, the hand recount results have not yet been certified, so the window is still open for county canvassing boards to reconsider ballots.

The Supreme Court's decision means local canvassing boards won't be forced to reconsider rejected ballots - but state law has always allowed them to do so of their own accord.

The relevant state law, RCW 29A.60.210, is available online at www.leg.wa.gov/RCW. It says:

"Whenever the canvassing board finds that there is an apparent discrepancy or an inconsistency in the returns of a primary or election, the board may recanvass the ballots or voting devices in any precincts of the county. The canvassing board shall conduct any necessary recanvass activity on or before the last day to certify the primary or election and correct any error and document the correction of any error that it finds."