GOP wants vote data from King County

The state Republican Party rolled out a long list of questions and accusations about the King County elections system yesterday that will likely be the foundation for contesting Democrat Christine Gregoire's claim to the governor's office.

Democrats called the litany a desperate attempt to keep Republican Dino Rossi in the race even after he lost the manual recount by 130 votes out of 2.8 million cast.


		AP
	Dan Brady, the lead ballot counting observer in King County for the state Republican Party, uses an enlarged sample of a ballot at a news conference to explain what he says are discrepancies in vote counting in the governor's race.

Rossi won the first count and the mandatory mechanical recount by 261 votes and 42 votes, respectively.

Secretary of State Sam Reed is scheduled to certify Gregoire the winner Thursday. Republicans may challenge the results, but yesterday they didn't specifically say what they might do.

State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance said under normal circumstances, the parties have a responsibility to be "good stewards to the process."

That means the loser should accept the result and move on, "no matter how small the margin."

But these were not normal circumstances, said Vance, adding the election raised several questions about the fairness and accuracy of the election process.

"At that point, I think you have an affirmative duty to raise those questions because if we don't, no one else will," Vance said. "It is up to the combatants, the participants in this process, to hold the system accountable."

He said the biggest problem in King County was insufficient and inconsistent instruction for election workers charged with enhancing ballots to determine voter intent.

Contrary to state law, a significant but unknown number of ballots were permanently and irrevocably altered, Vance said.

"You might have had your mark permanently filled in with a black pen," Vance said. "You might have had nothing done to it. You might have had it whited out."

He said although the inconsistency was the rule it consistently benefited Gregoire, who picked up 179 votes in King County during the hand recount.

King County spokeswoman Carolyn Duncan said the state has specific rules about the enhancement of votes.

"We followed the letter of the law," Duncan said. "We had an open, transparent and fair process. Observers from both parties were present -- and we met with them at the end of each day and addressed their questions."

Kirstin Brost, spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, said Republicans are "just grasping at straws."

"There were some problems in King County," Brost said. "There was a process to fix them. And for (the) most part they were fixed. There are hundreds of Republicans who gave up their time to participate in the process. It is an insult to them to say it was chaotic."

Yesterday, Republicans said what they want from King County is:

A list of all voters who submitted ballots in the Nov. 2 general election, whether those ballots were counted or rejected.

Any current policies regarding the retention of documents.

Any documents regarding the issuance, delivery or counting of military and overseas ballots.

E-mails and other correspondence to or from all county workers connected in any way to the 2004 election.

Any complaints or records of complaints from voters about problems receiving ballots, voting or obtaining information about whether their ballot was counted.

Any envelopes, updated signature cards or registration records related to provisional and absentee ballots rejected for signature failings.

A list of voters who cast provisional ballots on which signatures could not be verified.

Any training materials related to if, how and when election workers should enhance or duplicate ballots or declare a ballot an undervote or overvote.

Vance said the decision to contest the election will depend largely on how forthcoming King County is and how much it addresses the party's concerns.

He said Rossi has "a big, big say" in the final decision about contesting the election. "Probably the final say," Vance said.