Party leaders dissect election ruling

The state Democratic and Republican party leaders agreed on one thing yesterday: It might be a good idea for King County to choose its top elections official by popular vote, as do the other 38 counties in the state.

"The election of an auditor is something that would hold an individual accountable for errors," state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt said at a morning news conference in Seattle.

His GOP counterpart, Chris Vance, endorsed that idea in his afternoon news conference in Tukwila.

But otherwise, each side fought to squeeze a little more political juice out of the 2004 governor's race and the ensuing legal battle that ended Monday, or so it seemed, with a verdict upholding the 129-vote victory of Democrat Christine Gregoire.

The defeated GOP candidate, Dino Rossi, sued in January to overturn the election, and in the two-week trial in Chelan County Superior Court his lawyers cited numerous mistakes and errors by King County elections officials in counting the votes.

Judge John Bridges ruled Monday morning that mistakes weren't enough to set aside the election. A few hours later, Rossi announced he would drop the case, forgoing a widely expected appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Berendt was less than magnanimous in victory yesterday.

"The time for a graceful exit from the election for Dino Rossi was six months ago," Berendt said.

"We want to hold Dino Rossi accountable for dragging the state through a very expensive and unnecessary lawsuit."

Elections officials across the state invested a lot of staff time in digging through voter records to find information requested by lawyers, Berendt said.

While other counties elect an auditor to run elections, the elections director in King County is appointed by the county executive. To change that, the County Council would have to approve a ballot proposal, and the voters would have to ratify it.

The Democratic Party's own bill for the case is close to $3.5 million, Berendt said, and it doesn't have the money right now to pay its lawyers.

Neither do the Republicans, Vance said.

He said he didn't know how much the GOP spent on the case, but its estimate going in was $2 million to $2.5 million.

The GOP still thinks Bridges got the law wrong. But the party decided not to appeal his verdict because they didn't think they could prevail, "given the political makeup" of the state Supreme Court, Vance said.

"I don't think anybody thinks this is a court that's politically conservative," he said.

The Republicans will press the Legislature to spell out that an election can be overturned simply if the number of illegal votes exceeds the margin of victory, Vance said. Under Bridges' interpretation of the law, Rossi needed to show that illegal votes cost him the election.

Vance also said the GOP would work harder to find felons and other illegal voters and challenge their registrations before they vote.

"We're going to go out and comb through the voter rolls," he said.

Vance said Berendt and the Democrats are trying frantically to "re-spin" the election dispute.

Polls show that Rossi is the most popular politician in the state, Vance said, "and the Democrats are scared to death of him."

Rossi has not disclosed his political plans.