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December 22nd, 2004 11:08 pm
Governor's Race in Washington Comes Down to 10 Votes

By Sarah Kershaw / New York Times

SEATTLE, Dec. 22 — After a bitter and protracted recount fight in the Washington state governor’s race, elections officials announced today that the Democratic candidate, Christine O. Gregoire, was now leading her Republican opponent by a miniscule margin of only 10 votes, a stunning reversal of the Nov. 2 election results.

The preliminary results elated Democratic Party officials, and they came only hours after the party scored another victory, when the state Supreme Court agreed with its contention that more than 700 newly discovered and disqualified ballots in heavily Democratic King County should now be counted. Since Ms. Gregoire, 57, already had a solid lead in that county, the ruling is expected to increase her edge.

The days events were a serious blow to Dino Rossi, 45, a real estate executive and former state senator, who had been certified the winner of the Nov. 2 vote, after eking out a margin of 261 votes out of almost 3 million cast. He later won a machine recount by only 42 votes.

Official results from this second recount -- in one of the nation’s closest contests ever-- would not be available until Thursday, after King County completes a review of the 723 ballots it is now allowed to count. Republicans were already vowing to press election officials, likely through a lawsuit, to consider at several hundred other disqualified ballots cast in other counties. And whatever the final results, they were almost certain to be contested.

But the Democrats, who have waged an-all out battle for their candidate, in a state known much more for politeness in politics than the kind of partisan brawling that has dominated the excruciatingly close contest, said they were confident that the recount had indeed changed the outcome of a statewide election for the first time in state history.

Washington State has held several recounts before, but no election has been this close and losers were never before turned into victors.

“We are confident that she has been elected governor,” Paul Berendt, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in an interview early today after learning of the recount’s results Tuesday night. “It feels exhilarating. We have fought hard. We have never stopped fighting.”

But the fighting appeared far from over. More legal challenges were virtually certain, and Republicans were already raising questions about the security of the ballots in question. However, under state law no matter how close this recount is, there can be no further recounts. “Knowing how King County operates, it really is not over until the fat lady sings,” said Mary Lane, a spokeswoman for Mr. Rossi.

Under state law, if a second recount reverses an election, the cost, in this case $700,000, is then covered by the state. The Democrats paid for the second recount using a huge infusion of donations from Democrats across the country, including Senator John Kerry and Howard Dean, and in an election year that delivered Democrats nationally so many bruising losses, the potential fall and rise of a Democrat in Washington appears — for now — to be a deliciously hard-won aberration.

This was the state’s most expensive gubernatorial race in history, and 2.9 million ballots were cast on Election Day. Ms. Gregoire, a three-term attorney general, was the favorite.

But in an initial count of the votes, Mr. Rossi, a commercial real estate agent and former state senator, was declared the winner with a margin of 261 votes. After a machine recount mandated by law because of the closeness of the race, Mr. Rossi’s lead was reduced to 42 votes. The Democrats then said they would pay for a hand-recount that commenced on Dec. 8.

Regardless of who prevails in the Washington State election, the winner and loser seem destined to take their places in political lore as having been combatants in one of the closest elections in American history. Even a cursory look at past cliffhangers confirms what a rich history it is.

The presidential election of 2000 is sometimes called one of the closest ever, but several qualifiers are necessary. Vice President Al Gore actually won the popular vote over George W. Bush by a margin of about 537,000, a far more decisive (if ultimately meaningless) edge than the 115,000 by which John F. Kennedy defeated Richard M. Nixon in 1960. Mr. Bush, of course, ultimately triumphed in the Electoral College, 271 to 266, after weeks of controversy over the Florida returns and a Supreme Court showdown.

But the Electoral College vote in the 1876 election was even closer. That was the year that Gov. Samuel J. Tilden of New York, a Democrat, bested Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, a Republican, by a full quarter-million votes out of about 8.4 million cast. But there was an uproar over the returns from South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida, which had appeared to go for Tilden but which Republicans claimed ought to be invalid, because many black people had been unable to vote in those states.

Election boards in those states eventually declared Hayes the victor. Congress set up a special commission to validate the returns, and the panel voted, 8 to 7, along party lines for Hayes. Thus, Hayes won the Electoral College, again by a single vote, 185 to 184.

Then there was the 1948 Texas election, which propelled Lyndon B. Johnson into the Senate and, eventually, the White House. Johnson had been in the House since 1937, and he risked everything 11 years later to run in the Democratic primary for Senate against former Gov. Coke R. Stevenson. Whoever won the Democratic primary would be virtually certain of victory in the general election.

After the July 24 primary, Stevenson led by 71,000 votes out of more than 1 million cast. But since Stevenson did not get a majority there was a runoff, on Aug. 28. The morning after the runoff Stevenson was still ahead, by 854 votes.

But suddenly (many said fraudulently) a ballot box from a South Texas county turned up 202 previously uncounted votes. They went overwhelmingly for Johnson, who vaulted into the lead by 87 votes. An inquiry found that the 202 names were listed in alphabetical order and that the handwriting on the ballots was remarkably similar.

The Texas Democratic Party’s executive committee certified Johnson the winner, and he was on his way to victory that November, and on his way to Washington. The executive committee vote was 29 to 28.

David Stout contributed reporting from Washington.