Washington gubernatorial election, 2004
Encyclopedia
The election for governor of Washington on November 2, 2004 gained national attention for its legal twists and extremely close finish. Notable for being among the closest political races in United States election history, Republican
Dino Rossi
was declared the winner in the initial automated count and again in the subsequent automated recount. It wasn't until after the third count, a second recount done by hand, that Christine Gregoire
, a Democrat
, took the lead by a margin of 129 votes.
Although Gregoire was sworn in as Governor of Washington on January 12, 2005, Rossi did not formally concede and called for a re-vote over concerns about the integrity of the election. The Republican Party filed a lawsuit in Chelan County Superior Court contesting the election, but the trial judge ruled against it, citing lack of evidence of deliberate electoral sabotage. Rossi chose not to appeal to the Washington State Supreme Court, formally conceding the election on June 6, 2005. Gregoire is Washington's second female governor.
s. The state had a long tradition of using blanket primaries
, where the candidates of all political parties
appear together on the same ballot for all voters. In this system, the leading vote-getter from each party advances to the general election. Washington's voters are not registered by party affiliation and a voter could participate in selecting candidates for more than one party, although the voter could only choose one candidate (of whatever party) for each office.
In February 2004 the United States Supreme Court declined to review a lower court decision striking down the blanket primary as unconstitutional, based on it violating the rights of the parties to freedom of association
under the First Amendment
. Washington was thus forced to devise a new primary election system. The state legislature passed a bill providing that the top two vote-getters for each office in the primary would advance to the general election, regardless of which political party they belonged to. Voters would still be allowed to vote for any candidate as before. However, this measure was veto
ed by Governor Gary Locke in favor of a Montana-style system that requires voters to choose a ballot for one specific party and vote only on that party's candidates in the primary.
The primary election in 2004 was held using the new system, but a campaign to replace it was already underway. The Washington State Grange
, which had helped institute the blanket primary in 1935, filed Initiative
872 to implement the "top-two" primary instead, which would once again allow voters to cross party lines in the primary election but now send the top two vote-getters to the general election. In districts dominated by one party, the top-two system could result in Democrat- or Republican-only general election races. Supporters claimed it would bring back voter choice across party lines and allow independent voters to participate in the primary; opponents said it would exclude third parties
and independent candidates from general election ballots, and would in fact reduce general election voter choice. The initiative was put to a public vote in November 2004, and passed with 60% of the vote. The state Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties sued, however, and a federal district court judge ruled in 2005 that the measure was unconstitutional because it too infringed the parties' First Amendment right to select their own candidates. Washington continued with the party-line primary system while appealing the case.
governor Gary Locke indicated that he would not seek a third term, opening up the Democratic
primary to alternate candidates. Former Washington State Supreme Court justice Phil Talmadge was the first candidate to enter the race for the Democratic primary, challenging Gary Locke before he announced his retirement, but Washington Attorney-General Christine Gregoire
quickly became the frontrunner, leading in fundraising and endorsements. King County
Executive Ron Sims
announced his candidacy, but failed to garner much interest. According to a March 2004, Mellman Group poll, Gregoire would beat both Sims and Talmadge 36% to 11% and four percent in an open primary
, and would beat Sims 55% to 17% in a closed primary. On April 29, 2004, Talmadge announced he was withdrawing from the race following the discovery of a benign kidney
tumor
, citing the likely need for surgery and associated recovery time.
struggled to find a candidate through most of 2003 when presumed candidate Bob Herbold
, a former Executive Vice President and COO
of Microsoft
, declined to run. They finally recruited Dino Rossi
, a relatively obscure political figure who left the state Senate to pursue a gubernatorial run due to state elected officials being prohibited from raising money while the legislature is in session.
race was between Ruth Bennett
, former state chair of the party in Washington and Colorado, and Michael Nelson.
and economic
growth the centerpiece of their campaigns.
The Rossi campaign presented its own job-growth plan, and stated that 20 years of Democratic governors were to blame for the economic troubles in the state. However, during the general election he was criticized for a strongly conservative voting record that was at odds with his moderate campaign posture. Rossi was also criticized for his long-time professional association with a real estate broker
convicted of fraud, and for alleged résumé
embellishments. Rossi had worked against Roe v. Wade
, attacked opponents for supporting gay rights, and proclaimed that creationism
should be taught in public schools. Rossi campaigned on being pro-life
and in favor of state and federal Constitutional Amendments that would ban certain benefits for gay couples. He downplayed his long history of conservative comments and claimed to be a "fiscal moderate with a social conscience." Rossi would not publicly state his opinion over stem cell
research.
The Gregoire campaign promised to boost job growth in the state which had slowed greatly after the dot-com bubble
burst in 2000, to improve education
, and to increase access to health care
. It also focused on Gregoire's record of challenging big tobacco
and pharmaceutical companies in her tenure as state Attorney-General. Gregoire also proposed a major state-led initiative in life sciences, especially stem cell research, where she proposed investing $
500 million of a tobacco settlement the state hoped to receive in 2008. Her economic plan for the state focused on improving state infrastructure and improving the quality of education in the state, which she claimed would attract investors. Gregoire also stated that she believed Washington residents should be allowed to buy prescription medicine
from Canada, while Rossi said that he needed to be convinced it "was safe". Gregoire was criticized for being a part of the state government establishment, but tried to counter Rossi's "time for a change" message by saying that she would "blow past the bureaucracy
" and bring change herself. This language surprised and disappointed many of her colleagues and supporters, who saw it as a failure to give mention or credit to the efforts and achievements of past Democratic governors.
Gregoire was also strongly criticized in many attack ad
s for an incident which occurred in 2000, when Gregoire's office failed to file documents on time to appeal a record $17.8 million personal-injury verdict against Washington. Documents from an independent investigation conducted at the time of the incident show that Gregoire's deputies attempted to influence who was listed as responsible for the missed deadline. A further case Gregoire was strongly criticized for occurred in 2002 during a wrongful death lawsuit when Gregoire's office did not detect an error in jury instructions. The state was forced to pay $22.4 million to the plaintiff
. While Gregoire was not directly responsible for these offenses, the Rossi campaign claimed that she had already cost Washington taxpayers millions of dollars and was negligent.
Rossi won the endorsement of the Republican Party, the National Rifle Association
, The Seattle Times
, several business and medical associations, and former governor Dan Evans
. Gregoire received the endorsement of the Democratic Party, GLAAD, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
, pro-choice organizations, and all the previous Democratic governors of the state. However, the Republican Party decided not to fund ads for Rossi in the state as polls leading up to the election date showed Gregoire with a clear lead. Almost all of Rossi's ads were paid for and created by outside sources, although as Gregoire's lead narrowed closer to the election date, the Republican Party ultimately decided to launch a series of advertisements for Rossi.
Ruth Bennett's campaign focused on permitting gay marriage in the state and economic liberalization in line with Libertarianism
. She also recommended equally dividing the state budget among the counties and allowing the counties to establish tax systems on a county-by-county basis, ultimately leading to a diminished role of Washington's Department of Revenue.
Gregoire led in almost all polls conducted leading up to the election, but Rossi was able to close in on her late in the race and won considerable support from Eastern Washington
. He also ran much stronger than expected in Snohomish
and Pierce
Counties. Gregoire received strong support (nearly a three-to-two margin) from the largest county in the state, King County
, which includes heavily Democratic Seattle
. During the initial ballot count, the lead changed hands several times.
The initial result, as reported by Secretary of State
Sam Reed
, showed Rossi with a lead of 261 votes. Well within the margin for an automatic machine recount pursuant to Washington state law (less than 0.5% and less than 2,000 votes,) the state-wide recount was completed on November 24. Rossi again came away with the lead, this time 42 votes over Gregoire. Of the 39 counties in Washington, Rossi carried 32 and Gregoire 7.
In Washington, a candidate may request one hand count or machine count, provided that they pay for the estimated cost of the recount up front. If a manual recount overturns the outcome of an election, the state will then refund the money to the candidate. On December 3, the Washington State Democratic Party gave a $730,000 check to the Secretary of State for the statewide manual recount of nearly 3 million ballots. The Secretary of State issued the order for a recount on Monday, December 6. The next day, attorneys for the Democratic Party and the Secretary of State argued before the Washington State Supreme Court over terms for the recount. The Democrats argued for a universal standard to be applied to the manual recount, and for the retabulation of votes over simply recanvassing them. Attorneys for the Secretary of State replied saying that any retabulation of votes would be a violation of state election laws and the Washington State Constitution
. Two days later, the Supreme Court issued their opinion and rejected universal standards in the statewide recount.
Chairman Larry Phillips
was at a Democratic Party office in Seattle on Sunday December 12, reviewing a list of voters whose absentee votes had been rejected due to signature problems, when to his surprise he found his own name listed. Phillips said he was certain he had filled out and signed his ballot correctly, and asked the county election officials to investigate the discrepancy. They discovered that Phillips' signature had somehow failed to be scanned into the election computer system after he submitted his request for an absentee ballot. Election workers claimed that they had received Phillips' absentee ballot in the mail, but they could not find his signature in the computer system to compare to the one on the ballot envelope, so they mistakenly rejected the ballot instead of following the standard procedure of checking it against the signature of Phillips' physical voter registration card that was on file. The discovery prompted King County Director of Elections Dean Logan to order his staff to search the computers to see if any other ballots had been incorrectly rejected.
Logan announced on December 13 that 561 absentee ballots in the county had been wrongly rejected due to an administrative error
. The next day, workers retrieving voting machines from precinct storage found an additional 12 ballots, bringing the total to 572 newly discovered ballots. Logan admitted the lost ballots were an oversight on the part of his department, and insisted that the found ballots be counted. On December 15, the King County Canvassing Board voted 2-1 in favor of counting the discovered ballots.
Upon examination of the discovered ballots, it was further discovered that, with the exception of two ballots, none of the ballots had been cast by voters whose surnames began with the letters A, B, or C. There was a further search for more ballots, and on December 17, county workers discovered a tray in a warehouse with an additional 162 previously uncounted ballots. All together, 723 uncounted or improperly rejected ballots were discovered in King County during the manual hand recount.
Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party Chris Vance stated that he was "absolutely convinced that King County is trying to steal this election." The National Rifle Association
, which had endorsed Rossi, sent a mass e-mail
on December 14 to its members asking for volunteers to go to King County in order to sit in on the county elections office and observe the recount.
The Washington State Republican Party filed a restraining order in Pierce County District Court, requesting an injunction against King County to block the tabulation of the uncounted ballots. The request was granted on December 17, but Democrats appealed to the Supreme Court. On December 22, the court ruled against the Republican Party and overturned the restraining order, allowing King County to count all ballots. The next day, Sam Reed issued a statement explaining the process for certification of the uncounted ballots and the standards for fair voting practices in the state.
Protesters gathered in front of both Democratic state headquarters and Republican state headquarters in the days after the injunction against King County's discovered ballots. On December 21, Republican protestors rallied in front of the Washington State Supreme Court Building dressed in orange
and holding signs saying "Welcome to Ukraine
", comparing the inclusion of the discovered ballots to the election fraud in the recent Ukrainian presidential election
.
After all other counties submitted their recount votes, it was revealed on December 20 that at least five other counties besides King County had included ballots that had been discovered after the initial count. For example, Snohomish County
included 224 missed ballots that had been discovered underneath mail trays
. The outcome of the State Supreme Court hearing regarding King County's votes could have potentially affected those counties' counts as well.
Washington state law allows for election officials to evaluate voter intent and correct ballots so that the machines can properly read them. For example, on a Scantron
or other optical ballot, an election official might fill in a circle that was not properly marked so that the machine may record the vote. Republicans filed a federal lawsuit to stop the visual examination of ballots, claiming that it is not allowed under federal law (Equal Protection Amendment). The Republican Party was contending that the method King County was using was different than in other counties, therefore treating voters in King County differently than in others. However, the court ruled that this was not the case, as King County was counting their ballots in a manner similar to that of other counties.
A Pierce County Superior Court judge ruled that ballots should not be counted, but on December 22, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that counties explicitly have the ability to correct ballot consideration errors made during earlier counts. Of those 732 ballots, 566 were accepted as having valid signatures and were added to the existing total on December 23. The final results of the hand count, as of December 23, had Christine Gregoire ahead by 130 votes, which was later revised to 129 when it was discovered that Thurston County had added a vote after certification had been completed. Since the recount results were in favor of the party requesting the recount, the Democrats were reimbursed the recount costs they had advanced to the state.
The Republicans were already preparing for further legal action before the final tally was announced by canvassing Republican voters whose ballots had been rejected. On December 29, Rossi called for a re-vote, saying that "this election has been a total mess" and that a "revote would be the best solution for the people of our state and would give us a legitimate governorship". This solution had been rejected by the Democrats and Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed
because Washington's election law contains no re-vote provision, which left a lawsuit the only other option. Reed officially certified the results of the manual recount on December 30, declaring Gregoire the governor-elect.
counties. King County's election department (the greater Seattle area) was also targeted for how they handled the ballots, including untracked use of a "ballot-on-demand" printing machine. Also, ballots in six counties were discovered after the initial count and included in the recounts, the most being from King County. The judge hearing the lawsuit ruled that the Party did not provide enough evidence that the disputed votes were ineligible votes, or for whom they were cast, to enable the court to overturn the election.
Controversy over the election's outcome continued after the certification of the hand recount results. The Washington State Republican Party called into question the discrepancy between the list of voters casting ballot
s in King County (895,660) and the number of ballots reported in the final hand recount (899,199). They claimed that hundreds of votes, including votes by felons, deceased voters, and double voters, were included in the canvass. As an explanation, election officials claimed that they had yet to finalize the list at the time, and argued that discrepancies in the two numbers are common and do not necessarily indicate fraud. As the election officials had expected, once the two lists were completed on January 5, the two numbers were indeed very close to one another. Also on January 5, 2005, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
published an article investigating votes in King County apparently cast by dead people. The PI uncovered eight cases of votes attributed to dead people; these included one administrative error, two ballots cast by the spouses of recently deceased voters (one who voted against Gregoire), one case of a husband apparently voting his dead wife's ballot instead of his own, and a man who legally voted his absentee ballot and then died before election day. One dead woman was marked as having voted in person at the polls.
By law, the result of the election can be contested by any individual who files suit at any time up to 10 days after any inauguration, thereby making January 22 the latest date to have filed any suit. Two private citizens filed challenges to the election on January 6: Daniel P. Stevens of Fall City
and Arthur Coday, Jr. of Shoreline
. The Republican party filed a suit on January 7 in Chelan County claiming that voters had been deprived of their right to a "free and fair election", and demanding a revote by special election. While the evidence focused especially on problems in King County, adjacent Chelan was chosen as the venue because it was more solidly Republican and the GOP questioned the ability of King County judges to rule impartially in such a case.
Neither suit asked for Gregoire's inauguration to be delayed, allowing governor Gary Locke to leave his post as scheduled. Gregoire was inaugurated on January 12. On February 4, Judge John E. Bridges
, assigned by Chelan County to preside over the case, ruled that the court did not have the authority to order a re-election. However, in the same ruling, he also rejected the Democrats' argument that only the state legislature, which then had a Democratic majority, and not the court, had the sole authority to decide whether an election was invalid, thereby indicating that he intended to proceed to trial. Both sides declared victory over this early pre-trial ruling.
The Republicans presented data showing discrepancies in absentee ballot counts from 11 King County precincts. In some precincts, the county tallied more mail-in ballots than there were voters recorded as having voted by mail. In others, the opposite occurred—the county recorded more voters than ballots. The proof that ballots were fabricated for Democrats, Republican attorneys argued, is that four of the five precincts with the most excess mail-in ballots backed Gregoire. And as proof that ballots were misplaced or destroyed to harm Republicans, they pointed to the fact that four of the six precincts in which the most mail-in votes cannot be accounted for backed Republican Dino Rossi.
Additionally, the Republicans contended that King County was three days past its federally mandated due date of October 10 to send out its absentee ballots to overseas military personnel, widely considered more likely to vote Republican. The United States Postal Service
Bulk Permit
#1455 was used to mail 1,605 ballots on October 2, and 28,000 on October 13. The Republicans claimed that the delay may have prevented military servicepeople from voting, thereby skewing the results in King County. On air, local talk radio host Bryan Suits
claimed that his vote in particular was not counted while he performed military service in Iraq.
On February 19 Judge Bridges denied the Democratic motion calling for the challengers' burden of proof to include a comprehensive list of disputed ballots cast for each candidate. The Republicans acknowledged that such an exhaustive list would be impossible to complete, but continued to argue that the volume of illegal ballots, and the electoral tendencies of the counties in which they were cast, demonstrated a strong likelihood that the illegal ballots had led to Gregoire's victory. On February 26, as a part of the Republican suit, Rossi's legal team produced a list of 1,135 felon
s, deceased people, or people who allegedly voted twice
, whom attorneys
claimed influenced the outcome. A substantial number of the felon-voters were convicted as juveniles and were legally permitted to vote. Conservative columnists suggested that felons were more likely to vote for Gregoire, but most of the felon-voters resided in counties won by Rossi.
As a solution to the problem of the illegal voters, the Republicans proposed a solution of "proportional reduction". Republicans claimed that it should be assumed that illegal votes were cast in the same percentages as other votes in the same precinct. For example, in a precinct where Gregoire won 60% of the vote, it would have been assumed that she received 60% of the illegal vote as well, and those votes would be subtracted from her total for the precinct. The Democrats countered that the Republicans' proposal was statistically invalid, an example of the ecological fallacy
, and the best solution would be to call each of the felons into court and ask them to swear under oath which political candidate they voted for, after which time their vote would be removed from the total.
The trial began on May 23, with both sides presenting their evidence of manipulation. On June 6, 2005, Judge John E. Bridges
ruled that the Republican party did not provide enough evidence that the disputed votes were ineligible -or for whom they were cast- to overturn the election. Judge Bridges noted that there was evidence that 1,678 votes had been illegally cast throughout the state, but found that the only evidence submitted to show how those votes had been cast were sworn statements from four felons that they had voted for Rossi. He stated that the judiciary should exercise restraint; "unless an election is clearly invalid, when the people have spoken, their verdict should not be disturbed by the court." Nullifying the election, Bridges said, would be "the ultimate act of judicial egotism and judicial activism." He also concluded that according to his interpretation of the Washington Administrative Code, "voters who improperly cast provisional ballot
s should not be disenfranchised." He also rejected all claims of fraud and the Republican Party's statistical analysis, concluding that the expert testimony of the Republican party was "not helpful" and that the proportional reduction theory was not supported under any law in the state. Striking another blow against Rossi's court case, he stated that "the court is more inclined to believe that Gregoire would have prevailed under statistical analysis theory," rejecting the Rossi campaign's claim that improperly cast ballots led to Gregoire's victory.
Bridges removed the five votes from the final count: four for Rossi and one for Ruth Bennett. No evidence was brought before the court of any of the illegal votes benefitted Gregoire. The final margin of victory for Gregoire over Rossi was 133 votes. Rossi did not appeal to the state Supreme Court and the Washington State Republican party settled the case after paying $15,000 in court costs to the Democrats.
Judge Bridges' ruling was seen as a comprehensive defeat for Rossi. The judge admitted nearly every piece of evidence the Republican Party offered and then wrote a thorough, tough opinion rejecting the Republicans' claims (while criticizing the administration of the election, particularly in King County); Rossi was left with very little legal ground for a successful appeal. After receiving such a negative verdict, Rossi declined to appeal to the State Supreme Court, claiming that the political makeup of the Court would make it impossible for him to win, thereby ending all legal challenges to the election of Gregoire as the Governor of Washington.
The 2004 election became a focus of media attention again in early 2007 when news broke that eight federal prosecutors including John McKay
, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, had been fired
. Republicans had hoped that after the election McKay would begin a federal investigation into alleged voter fraud, but he did not; McKay stated afterward that he would not convene a grand jury for purely political reasons and emphasized he had not seen any evidence of voter fraud in the Governor's race. However, later in 2007, members of ACORN were arrested for voter registration fraud in Pierce and King Counties when seven people filled out more than 1800 voter registration cards in a Seattle public library. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was given a 5 year agreement with the state of Washington to improve training procedures after the largest voter registration fraud prosecuted in Washington history.
Candidates' websites
Washington government
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Dino Rossi
Dino Rossi
Dino Rossi is an American commercial real estate executive, former Washington State Senator, two-time Republican candidate for Governor of Washington, and former Republican candidate for United States Senate. His first run for the Governor's mansion in the 2004 election became the closest...
was declared the winner in the initial automated count and again in the subsequent automated recount. It wasn't until after the third count, a second recount done by hand, that Christine Gregoire
Christine Gregoire
Christine O'Grady "Chris" Gregoire is the 22nd and current Governor of the state of Washington, and a member of the Democratic Party. Gregoire defeated Republican candidate Dino Rossi in 2004, and again in 2008. She is the second female governor of Washington...
, a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, took the lead by a margin of 129 votes.
Although Gregoire was sworn in as Governor of Washington on January 12, 2005, Rossi did not formally concede and called for a re-vote over concerns about the integrity of the election. The Republican Party filed a lawsuit in Chelan County Superior Court contesting the election, but the trial judge ruled against it, citing lack of evidence of deliberate electoral sabotage. Rossi chose not to appeal to the Washington State Supreme Court, formally conceding the election on June 6, 2005. Gregoire is Washington's second female governor.
The primaries
The 2004 election cycle was the first in Washington to use a party-line ballot system of holding primary electionPrimary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
s. The state had a long tradition of using blanket primaries
Blanket primary
The blanket primary is a system used for selecting political party candidates in a primary election in the USA. In a blanket primary, voters may pick one candidate for each office without regard to party lines; for instance, a voter might select a Democratic candidate for governor and a Republican...
, where the candidates of all political parties
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
appear together on the same ballot for all voters. In this system, the leading vote-getter from each party advances to the general election. Washington's voters are not registered by party affiliation and a voter could participate in selecting candidates for more than one party, although the voter could only choose one candidate (of whatever party) for each office.
In February 2004 the United States Supreme Court declined to review a lower court decision striking down the blanket primary as unconstitutional, based on it violating the rights of the parties to freedom of association
Freedom of association
Freedom of association is the individual right to come together with other individuals and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests....
under the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
. Washington was thus forced to devise a new primary election system. The state legislature passed a bill providing that the top two vote-getters for each office in the primary would advance to the general election, regardless of which political party they belonged to. Voters would still be allowed to vote for any candidate as before. However, this measure was veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
ed by Governor Gary Locke in favor of a Montana-style system that requires voters to choose a ballot for one specific party and vote only on that party's candidates in the primary.
The primary election in 2004 was held using the new system, but a campaign to replace it was already underway. The Washington State Grange
Grange movement
The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, also simply styled the Grange, is a fraternal organization for American farmers that encourages farm families to band together for their common economic and political well-being...
, which had helped institute the blanket primary in 1935, filed Initiative
Initiative
In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote...
872 to implement the "top-two" primary instead, which would once again allow voters to cross party lines in the primary election but now send the top two vote-getters to the general election. In districts dominated by one party, the top-two system could result in Democrat- or Republican-only general election races. Supporters claimed it would bring back voter choice across party lines and allow independent voters to participate in the primary; opponents said it would exclude third parties
Third party (United States)
The term third party is used in the United States for any and all political parties in the United States other than one of the two major parties . The term can also refer to independent politicians not affiliated with any party at all and to write-in candidates.The United States has had a...
and independent candidates from general election ballots, and would in fact reduce general election voter choice. The initiative was put to a public vote in November 2004, and passed with 60% of the vote. The state Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties sued, however, and a federal district court judge ruled in 2005 that the measure was unconstitutional because it too infringed the parties' First Amendment right to select their own candidates. Washington continued with the party-line primary system while appealing the case.
Democratic primary
In July 2003, incumbentIncumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
governor Gary Locke indicated that he would not seek a third term, opening up the Democratic
Washington State Democratic Party
The Washington State Democratic Party is the local Democratic Party branch in the State of Washington, headquartered in the Broderick Building in Downtown Seattle. It is also commonly referred to as the Washington State Democrats and the Washington Democratic Party.-Washington State Democratic...
primary to alternate candidates. Former Washington State Supreme Court justice Phil Talmadge was the first candidate to enter the race for the Democratic primary, challenging Gary Locke before he announced his retirement, but Washington Attorney-General Christine Gregoire
Christine Gregoire
Christine O'Grady "Chris" Gregoire is the 22nd and current Governor of the state of Washington, and a member of the Democratic Party. Gregoire defeated Republican candidate Dino Rossi in 2004, and again in 2008. She is the second female governor of Washington...
quickly became the frontrunner, leading in fundraising and endorsements. King County
King County, Washington
King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population in the 2010 census was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 14th most populous in the United States....
Executive Ron Sims
Ron Sims
Ronald Cordell Sims, , is currently the Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, having been confirmed by the Senate on May 6, 2009 and sworn in on May 8. He is also the former King County Executive...
announced his candidacy, but failed to garner much interest. According to a March 2004, Mellman Group poll, Gregoire would beat both Sims and Talmadge 36% to 11% and four percent in an open primary
Open primary
An open primary is a primary election that does not require voters to be affiliated with a political party in order to vote for partisan candidates. In a traditional open primary, voters may select one party's ballot and vote for that party's nomination. As in a closed primary, the highest voted...
, and would beat Sims 55% to 17% in a closed primary. On April 29, 2004, Talmadge announced he was withdrawing from the race following the discovery of a benign kidney
Kidney
The kidneys, organs with several functions, serve essential regulatory roles in most animals, including vertebrates and some invertebrates. They are essential in the urinary system and also serve homeostatic functions such as the regulation of electrolytes, maintenance of acid–base balance, and...
tumor
Tumor
A tumor or tumour is commonly used as a synonym for a neoplasm that appears enlarged in size. Tumor is not synonymous with cancer...
, citing the likely need for surgery and associated recovery time.
| Candidate | Home city | Total Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christine Gregoire Christine Gregoire Christine O'Grady "Chris" Gregoire is the 22nd and current Governor of the state of Washington, and a member of the Democratic Party. Gregoire defeated Republican candidate Dino Rossi in 2004, and again in 2008. She is the second female governor of Washington... |
Auburn Auburn, Washington -Parks:Auburn has an extensive system of parks, open space and urban trails comprising 29 developed parks, 5 undeveloped sites under planning, 2 skate parks, 2 water roatary parks, and over of trails , and almost of open space for passive and active recreation.-Environmental Park:The Auburn... |
504,018 | 65.62% |
| Ron Sims Ron Sims Ronald Cordell Sims, , is currently the Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, having been confirmed by the Senate on May 6, 2009 and sworn in on May 8. He is also the former King County Executive... |
Seattle Seattle, Washington Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country... |
228,306 | 29.72% |
| Mike The Mover | Lynnwood Lynnwood, Washington Lynnwood is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The population was 35,836 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth largest in Snohomish County and twenty-ninth largest in Washington State. The city is a mix of urban, suburban, small city, crossroads and bedroom community to many... |
15,118 | 1.96% |
| Don Hansler | Spanaway Spanaway, Washington Spanaway is a census-designated place in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 27,227 at the 2010 census. Spanaway is an unincorporated area near Tacoma, and is often identified together with the more urban, less wealthy Parkland.... |
8,636 | 1.12% |
| Scott Headland | Tacoma Tacoma, Washington Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to... |
6,983 | 0.90% |
| Eugen Buculei | Bellevue Bellevue, Washington Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is... |
5,005 | 0.65% |
Republican primary
The Washington State Republican PartyWashington State Republican Party
The Washington State Republican Party is the state affiliate of the national Republican Party, headquartered in Bellevue.The Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party is Kirby Wilbur, former host of the morning drive show on 570 KVI radio in Seattle for over fourteen years. The Vice Chair...
struggled to find a candidate through most of 2003 when presumed candidate Bob Herbold
Bob Herbold
Robert J. "Bob" Herbold, retired executive vice president and chief operating officer of Microsoft Corporation, is the Managing Director of The Herbold Group, LLC, a consulting business focused on executive training and profitability.-Biography:...
, a former Executive Vice President and COO
Chief operating officer
A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...
of Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, declined to run. They finally recruited Dino Rossi
Dino Rossi
Dino Rossi is an American commercial real estate executive, former Washington State Senator, two-time Republican candidate for Governor of Washington, and former Republican candidate for United States Senate. His first run for the Governor's mansion in the 2004 election became the closest...
, a relatively obscure political figure who left the state Senate to pursue a gubernatorial run due to state elected officials being prohibited from raising money while the legislature is in session.
| Candidate | Home city | Total Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dino Rossi Dino Rossi Dino Rossi is an American commercial real estate executive, former Washington State Senator, two-time Republican candidate for Governor of Washington, and former Republican candidate for United States Senate. His first run for the Governor's mansion in the 2004 election became the closest... |
Sammamish Sammamish, Washington -Surrounding cities and communities:-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 34,104 people, 11,131 households, and 9,650 families residing in the city. In 2007, the population is expected to pass 40,000.... |
444,337 | 85.14% |
| Bill Meyer | Bellingham Bellingham, Washington Bellingham is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the twelfth-largest city in the state. Situated on Bellingham Bay, Bellingham is protected by Lummi Island, Portage Island, and the Lummi Peninsula, and opens onto the Strait of Georgia... |
44,448 | 8.51% |
| John W. Aiken, Jr. | Medical Lake Medical Lake, Washington Medical Lake is a city in Spokane County, Washington, United States. The population was 5,060 at the 2010 census. It is home to two mental hospitals, Eastern State Hospital and Lakeland Village.-Geography:... |
33,104 | 6.34% |
Libertarian primary
The Libertarian Party of Washington StateLibertarian Party of Washington State
The Libertarian Party of Washington is the state affiliate of the national Libertarian Party in Washington.In 2000, the Libertarian Party attained in Washington, but lost it in the 2004 election....
race was between Ruth Bennett
Ruth Bennett
Ruth Bennett is a former chair of the Libertarian Party of Washington and Libertarian Party of Colorado. She is the current Vice-Chair of Outright Libertarians....
, former state chair of the party in Washington and Colorado, and Michael Nelson.
| Candidate | Home city | Total Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruth Bennett Ruth Bennett Ruth Bennett is a former chair of the Libertarian Party of Washington and Libertarian Party of Colorado. She is the current Vice-Chair of Outright Libertarians.... |
Seattle Seattle, Washington Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country... |
7,382 | 56.48% |
| Michael Nelson | Seattle Seattle, Washington Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country... |
5,687 | 43.51% |
Campaign
Both Gregoire and Rossi ran as centrists and promised to change the political landscape in Washington, and both made jobEmployment
Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
and economic
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
growth the centerpiece of their campaigns.
The Rossi campaign presented its own job-growth plan, and stated that 20 years of Democratic governors were to blame for the economic troubles in the state. However, during the general election he was criticized for a strongly conservative voting record that was at odds with his moderate campaign posture. Rossi was also criticized for his long-time professional association with a real estate broker
Real estate broker
A real estate broker, real estate agent or realtor is a party who acts as an intermediary between sellers and buyers of real estate/real property and attempts to find sellers who wish to sell and buyers who wish to buy...
convicted of fraud, and for alleged résumé
Résumé
A résumé is a document used by individuals to present their background and skillsets. Résumés can be used for a variety of reasons but most often to secure new employment. A typical résumé contains a summary of relevant job experience and education...
embellishments. Rossi had worked against Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...
, attacked opponents for supporting gay rights, and proclaimed that creationism
Creationism
Creationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
should be taught in public schools. Rossi campaigned on being pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
and in favor of state and federal Constitutional Amendments that would ban certain benefits for gay couples. He downplayed his long history of conservative comments and claimed to be a "fiscal moderate with a social conscience." Rossi would not publicly state his opinion over stem cell
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
research.
The Gregoire campaign promised to boost job growth in the state which had slowed greatly after the dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
burst in 2000, to improve education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, and to increase access to health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
. It also focused on Gregoire's record of challenging big tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
and pharmaceutical companies in her tenure as state Attorney-General. Gregoire also proposed a major state-led initiative in life sciences, especially stem cell research, where she proposed investing $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
500 million of a tobacco settlement the state hoped to receive in 2008. Her economic plan for the state focused on improving state infrastructure and improving the quality of education in the state, which she claimed would attract investors. Gregoire also stated that she believed Washington residents should be allowed to buy prescription medicine
Prescription drug
A prescription medication is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a medical prescription before it can be obtained. The term is used to distinguish it from over-the-counter drugs which can be obtained without a prescription...
from Canada, while Rossi said that he needed to be convinced it "was safe". Gregoire was criticized for being a part of the state government establishment, but tried to counter Rossi's "time for a change" message by saying that she would "blow past the bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
" and bring change herself. This language surprised and disappointed many of her colleagues and supporters, who saw it as a failure to give mention or credit to the efforts and achievements of past Democratic governors.
Gregoire was also strongly criticized in many attack ad
Attack ad
In political campaigns, an attack ad is an advertisement whose message is meant as a personal attack against another candidate or political party...
s for an incident which occurred in 2000, when Gregoire's office failed to file documents on time to appeal a record $17.8 million personal-injury verdict against Washington. Documents from an independent investigation conducted at the time of the incident show that Gregoire's deputies attempted to influence who was listed as responsible for the missed deadline. A further case Gregoire was strongly criticized for occurred in 2002 during a wrongful death lawsuit when Gregoire's office did not detect an error in jury instructions. The state was forced to pay $22.4 million to the plaintiff
Plaintiff
A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...
. While Gregoire was not directly responsible for these offenses, the Rossi campaign claimed that she had already cost Washington taxpayers millions of dollars and was negligent.
Rossi won the endorsement of the Republican Party, the National Rifle Association
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America is an American non-profit 501 civil rights organization which advocates for the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection...
, The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...
, several business and medical associations, and former governor Dan Evans
Daniel J. Evans
Daniel Jackson Evans served three terms as the 16th Governor of the state of Washington from 1965 to 1977, and represented the state in the United States Senate from 1983 to 1989....
. Gregoire received the endorsement of the Democratic Party, GLAAD, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
, pro-choice organizations, and all the previous Democratic governors of the state. However, the Republican Party decided not to fund ads for Rossi in the state as polls leading up to the election date showed Gregoire with a clear lead. Almost all of Rossi's ads were paid for and created by outside sources, although as Gregoire's lead narrowed closer to the election date, the Republican Party ultimately decided to launch a series of advertisements for Rossi.
Ruth Bennett's campaign focused on permitting gay marriage in the state and economic liberalization in line with Libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
. She also recommended equally dividing the state budget among the counties and allowing the counties to establish tax systems on a county-by-county basis, ultimately leading to a diminished role of Washington's Department of Revenue.
Gregoire led in almost all polls conducted leading up to the election, but Rossi was able to close in on her late in the race and won considerable support from Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington is the portion of the U.S. state of Washington east of the Cascade Range. The region contains the city of Spokane , the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the fertile farmlands of the Yakima Valley and the...
. He also ran much stronger than expected in Snohomish
Snohomish County, Washington
Snohomish County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. It is named after the Snohomish tribe. Since 2000, the county's population has grown from 606,024 to 713,335 residents , making it one of the fastest-growing in the state, ranking third in overall population after King and...
and Pierce
Pierce County, Washington
right|thumb|[[Tacoma, Washington|Tacoma]] - Seat of Pierce CountyPierce County is the second most populous county in the U.S. state of Washington. Formed out of Thurston County on December 22, 1852, by the legislature of Oregon Territory...
Counties. Gregoire received strong support (nearly a three-to-two margin) from the largest county in the state, King County
King County, Washington
King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population in the 2010 census was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 14th most populous in the United States....
, which includes heavily Democratic Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
. During the initial ballot count, the lead changed hands several times.
Initial results
Washington is unusual for a U.S. state in that it only requires that an absentee ballot be postmarked by the day of the election to be valid, while most other states require the ballot to have arrived at the election office by that time. Due to this as well as the state's high number of absentee ballots—more than 60% of all King County voters voted absentee—the initial result of the election was not known until November 17, the last day under state law for election results to be certified by each county's election officials.The initial result, as reported by Secretary of State
Secretary of State of Washington
The Secretary of State of Washington is one of the elected constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Washington. The duties of the office are specified in Article III, Section 17 of the Washington State Constitution and Chapter 43.07 of the Revised Code of Washington...
Sam Reed
Sam Reed
Sam Reed is the Secretary of State of Washington and a Republican. Reed is Washington's fourteenth Secretary of State.Reed received his bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from Washington State University...
, showed Rossi with a lead of 261 votes. Well within the margin for an automatic machine recount pursuant to Washington state law (less than 0.5% and less than 2,000 votes,) the state-wide recount was completed on November 24. Rossi again came away with the lead, this time 42 votes over Gregoire. Of the 39 counties in Washington, Rossi carried 32 and Gregoire 7.
Manual recount
After Rossi was certified as the victor on November 29, Washington State Secretary of State said that "a manual recount was almost a certainty." This view was shared by the Gregoire campaign with campaign spokesman, Morton Brilliant, saying that "if all the ballots aren't counted, we will go through the next four years with one candidate's supporters not believing the winner was legitimately elected." and that it was "worth taking three weeks to have four years of legitimacy, and that's what is at stake."In Washington, a candidate may request one hand count or machine count, provided that they pay for the estimated cost of the recount up front. If a manual recount overturns the outcome of an election, the state will then refund the money to the candidate. On December 3, the Washington State Democratic Party gave a $730,000 check to the Secretary of State for the statewide manual recount of nearly 3 million ballots. The Secretary of State issued the order for a recount on Monday, December 6. The next day, attorneys for the Democratic Party and the Secretary of State argued before the Washington State Supreme Court over terms for the recount. The Democrats argued for a universal standard to be applied to the manual recount, and for the retabulation of votes over simply recanvassing them. Attorneys for the Secretary of State replied saying that any retabulation of votes would be a violation of state election laws and the Washington State Constitution
Washington State Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Washington is the document that describes the structure and function of the government of the U.S. State of Washington...
. Two days later, the Supreme Court issued their opinion and rejected universal standards in the statewide recount.
Discovered ballots
King County CouncilKing County Council
The Metropolitan King County Council, the legislative body of King County, Washington, consists of nine members elected by district. The Council adopts laws, sets policy, and holds final approval over the budget...
Chairman Larry Phillips
Larry Phillips (politician)
Larry Phillips is a Democratic member of the King County Council in Washington state. Phillips has served on the Council since 1991, representing the fourth district, which includes the Seattle neighborhoods of Queen Anne, Magnolia, Ballard, Fremont, Belltown, Capitol Hill, Montlake, and Downtown....
was at a Democratic Party office in Seattle on Sunday December 12, reviewing a list of voters whose absentee votes had been rejected due to signature problems, when to his surprise he found his own name listed. Phillips said he was certain he had filled out and signed his ballot correctly, and asked the county election officials to investigate the discrepancy. They discovered that Phillips' signature had somehow failed to be scanned into the election computer system after he submitted his request for an absentee ballot. Election workers claimed that they had received Phillips' absentee ballot in the mail, but they could not find his signature in the computer system to compare to the one on the ballot envelope, so they mistakenly rejected the ballot instead of following the standard procedure of checking it against the signature of Phillips' physical voter registration card that was on file. The discovery prompted King County Director of Elections Dean Logan to order his staff to search the computers to see if any other ballots had been incorrectly rejected.
Logan announced on December 13 that 561 absentee ballots in the county had been wrongly rejected due to an administrative error
Administrative Error
Improper administration or execution of a survey results in administrative errors. Such errors can be caused by carelessness, confusion, neglect, omission or another blunder.There are four types of administrative errors.- Data-processing error :...
. The next day, workers retrieving voting machines from precinct storage found an additional 12 ballots, bringing the total to 572 newly discovered ballots. Logan admitted the lost ballots were an oversight on the part of his department, and insisted that the found ballots be counted. On December 15, the King County Canvassing Board voted 2-1 in favor of counting the discovered ballots.
Upon examination of the discovered ballots, it was further discovered that, with the exception of two ballots, none of the ballots had been cast by voters whose surnames began with the letters A, B, or C. There was a further search for more ballots, and on December 17, county workers discovered a tray in a warehouse with an additional 162 previously uncounted ballots. All together, 723 uncounted or improperly rejected ballots were discovered in King County during the manual hand recount.
Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party Chris Vance stated that he was "absolutely convinced that King County is trying to steal this election." The National Rifle Association
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America is an American non-profit 501 civil rights organization which advocates for the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection...
, which had endorsed Rossi, sent a mass e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
on December 14 to its members asking for volunteers to go to King County in order to sit in on the county elections office and observe the recount.
The Washington State Republican Party filed a restraining order in Pierce County District Court, requesting an injunction against King County to block the tabulation of the uncounted ballots. The request was granted on December 17, but Democrats appealed to the Supreme Court. On December 22, the court ruled against the Republican Party and overturned the restraining order, allowing King County to count all ballots. The next day, Sam Reed issued a statement explaining the process for certification of the uncounted ballots and the standards for fair voting practices in the state.
Protesters gathered in front of both Democratic state headquarters and Republican state headquarters in the days after the injunction against King County's discovered ballots. On December 21, Republican protestors rallied in front of the Washington State Supreme Court Building dressed in orange
Orange (colour)
The colour orange occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum at a wavelength of about 585–620 nm, and has a hue of 30° in HSV colour space. It is numerically halfway between red and yellow in a gamma-compressed RGB colour space, the expression of which is the RGB colour wheel. The...
and holding signs saying "Welcome to Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
", comparing the inclusion of the discovered ballots to the election fraud in the recent Ukrainian presidential election
Ukrainian presidential election, 2004
The Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 was held on October 31, November 21 and December 26, 2004. The election was the fourth presidential election to take place in Ukraine following independence from the Soviet Union...
.
After all other counties submitted their recount votes, it was revealed on December 20 that at least five other counties besides King County had included ballots that had been discovered after the initial count. For example, Snohomish County
Snohomish County, Washington
Snohomish County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. It is named after the Snohomish tribe. Since 2000, the county's population has grown from 606,024 to 713,335 residents , making it one of the fastest-growing in the state, ranking third in overall population after King and...
included 224 missed ballots that had been discovered underneath mail trays
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
. The outcome of the State Supreme Court hearing regarding King County's votes could have potentially affected those counties' counts as well.
Final results
The state Democratic party claimed on December 21 that the result of the manual recount, including King County's votes, placed Gregoire ahead by eight votes across the state. Later, on December 22, the preliminary recount results put Gregoire at a ten-vote lead.Washington state law allows for election officials to evaluate voter intent and correct ballots so that the machines can properly read them. For example, on a Scantron
Scantron
Scantron is an American company based in Eagan, Minnesota, that manufactures and sells machine-readable papers on which students mark answers to academic multiple-choice test questions. To analyze those answers, the machines use image-based data collection software and scanners...
or other optical ballot, an election official might fill in a circle that was not properly marked so that the machine may record the vote. Republicans filed a federal lawsuit to stop the visual examination of ballots, claiming that it is not allowed under federal law (Equal Protection Amendment). The Republican Party was contending that the method King County was using was different than in other counties, therefore treating voters in King County differently than in others. However, the court ruled that this was not the case, as King County was counting their ballots in a manner similar to that of other counties.
A Pierce County Superior Court judge ruled that ballots should not be counted, but on December 22, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that counties explicitly have the ability to correct ballot consideration errors made during earlier counts. Of those 732 ballots, 566 were accepted as having valid signatures and were added to the existing total on December 23. The final results of the hand count, as of December 23, had Christine Gregoire ahead by 130 votes, which was later revised to 129 when it was discovered that Thurston County had added a vote after certification had been completed. Since the recount results were in favor of the party requesting the recount, the Democrats were reimbursed the recount costs they had advanced to the state.
The Republicans were already preparing for further legal action before the final tally was announced by canvassing Republican voters whose ballots had been rejected. On December 29, Rossi called for a re-vote, saying that "this election has been a total mess" and that a "revote would be the best solution for the people of our state and would give us a legitimate governorship". This solution had been rejected by the Democrats and Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed
Sam Reed
Sam Reed is the Secretary of State of Washington and a Republican. Reed is Washington's fourteenth Secretary of State.Reed received his bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from Washington State University...
because Washington's election law contains no re-vote provision, which left a lawsuit the only other option. Reed officially certified the results of the manual recount on December 30, declaring Gregoire the governor-elect.
Further legal challenges
Republican leaders in Washington claimed there were enough disputed votes to change the outcome of the election and filed a lawsuit in Chelan County Superior Court in order to avoid having the case heard in the more liberal Western WashingtonWestern Washington
Western Washington is a region of the United States defined as that part of Washington west of the Cascade Mountains.It is known as being far wetter in climate than the eastern portion of the state, which...
counties. King County's election department (the greater Seattle area) was also targeted for how they handled the ballots, including untracked use of a "ballot-on-demand" printing machine. Also, ballots in six counties were discovered after the initial count and included in the recounts, the most being from King County. The judge hearing the lawsuit ruled that the Party did not provide enough evidence that the disputed votes were ineligible votes, or for whom they were cast, to enable the court to overturn the election.
Controversy over the election's outcome continued after the certification of the hand recount results. The Washington State Republican Party called into question the discrepancy between the list of voters casting ballot
Ballot
A ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use pre-printed to protect the...
s in King County (895,660) and the number of ballots reported in the final hand recount (899,199). They claimed that hundreds of votes, including votes by felons, deceased voters, and double voters, were included in the canvass. As an explanation, election officials claimed that they had yet to finalize the list at the time, and argued that discrepancies in the two numbers are common and do not necessarily indicate fraud. As the election officials had expected, once the two lists were completed on January 5, the two numbers were indeed very close to one another. Also on January 5, 2005, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
published an article investigating votes in King County apparently cast by dead people. The PI uncovered eight cases of votes attributed to dead people; these included one administrative error, two ballots cast by the spouses of recently deceased voters (one who voted against Gregoire), one case of a husband apparently voting his dead wife's ballot instead of his own, and a man who legally voted his absentee ballot and then died before election day. One dead woman was marked as having voted in person at the polls.
By law, the result of the election can be contested by any individual who files suit at any time up to 10 days after any inauguration, thereby making January 22 the latest date to have filed any suit. Two private citizens filed challenges to the election on January 6: Daniel P. Stevens of Fall City
Fall City, Washington
Fall City is a census-designated place in King County, Washington, United States. Located 26 miles east of Seattle, the community lies along the Snoqualmie River. The population was 1,993 at the 2010 census...
and Arthur Coday, Jr. of Shoreline
Shoreline, Washington
Shoreline is a city in King County, Washington, United States, north of Downtown Seattle bordering the northern Seattle city limits. As of the 2010 census, the population was 53,007, making it the 19th largest city in the state of Washington....
. The Republican party filed a suit on January 7 in Chelan County claiming that voters had been deprived of their right to a "free and fair election", and demanding a revote by special election. While the evidence focused especially on problems in King County, adjacent Chelan was chosen as the venue because it was more solidly Republican and the GOP questioned the ability of King County judges to rule impartially in such a case.
Neither suit asked for Gregoire's inauguration to be delayed, allowing governor Gary Locke to leave his post as scheduled. Gregoire was inaugurated on January 12. On February 4, Judge John E. Bridges
John E. Bridges
John E. Bridges is a Chelan County Superior Court Judge in Washington state. He presided over the high-profile legal challenge to the 2004 Washington gubernatorial election in which he upheld the election of Christine Gregoire. He grew up in Chelan County, and graduated from Seattle Pacific...
, assigned by Chelan County to preside over the case, ruled that the court did not have the authority to order a re-election. However, in the same ruling, he also rejected the Democrats' argument that only the state legislature, which then had a Democratic majority, and not the court, had the sole authority to decide whether an election was invalid, thereby indicating that he intended to proceed to trial. Both sides declared victory over this early pre-trial ruling.
The Republicans presented data showing discrepancies in absentee ballot counts from 11 King County precincts. In some precincts, the county tallied more mail-in ballots than there were voters recorded as having voted by mail. In others, the opposite occurred—the county recorded more voters than ballots. The proof that ballots were fabricated for Democrats, Republican attorneys argued, is that four of the five precincts with the most excess mail-in ballots backed Gregoire. And as proof that ballots were misplaced or destroyed to harm Republicans, they pointed to the fact that four of the six precincts in which the most mail-in votes cannot be accounted for backed Republican Dino Rossi.
Additionally, the Republicans contended that King County was three days past its federally mandated due date of October 10 to send out its absentee ballots to overseas military personnel, widely considered more likely to vote Republican. The United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
Bulk Permit
Bulk mail
Bulk mail broadly refers to mail that is mailed and processed in bulk at reduced rates. The term does not denote any particular purpose for the mail; but in general usage is synonymous with "junk mail."...
#1455 was used to mail 1,605 ballots on October 2, and 28,000 on October 13. The Republicans claimed that the delay may have prevented military servicepeople from voting, thereby skewing the results in King County. On air, local talk radio host Bryan Suits
Bryan Suits
Bryan Suits is an American war veteran of three military conflicts in Kuwait, Bosnia, and Iraq, and has been a talk radio host for more than 10 years. He has hosted talk-shows for radio stations in Seattle, WA: KIRO and KVI, and in Los Angeles: KFI AM 640. Suits was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and...
claimed that his vote in particular was not counted while he performed military service in Iraq.
On February 19 Judge Bridges denied the Democratic motion calling for the challengers' burden of proof to include a comprehensive list of disputed ballots cast for each candidate. The Republicans acknowledged that such an exhaustive list would be impossible to complete, but continued to argue that the volume of illegal ballots, and the electoral tendencies of the counties in which they were cast, demonstrated a strong likelihood that the illegal ballots had led to Gregoire's victory. On February 26, as a part of the Republican suit, Rossi's legal team produced a list of 1,135 felon
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
s, deceased people, or people who allegedly voted twice
Ballot stuffing
Ballot stuffing is the illegal act of one person submitting multiple ballots during a vote in which only one ballot per person is permitted. The name originates from the earliest days of this practice in which people literally did stuff more than one ballot in a ballot box at the same time...
, whom attorneys
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
claimed influenced the outcome. A substantial number of the felon-voters were convicted as juveniles and were legally permitted to vote. Conservative columnists suggested that felons were more likely to vote for Gregoire, but most of the felon-voters resided in counties won by Rossi.
As a solution to the problem of the illegal voters, the Republicans proposed a solution of "proportional reduction". Republicans claimed that it should be assumed that illegal votes were cast in the same percentages as other votes in the same precinct. For example, in a precinct where Gregoire won 60% of the vote, it would have been assumed that she received 60% of the illegal vote as well, and those votes would be subtracted from her total for the precinct. The Democrats countered that the Republicans' proposal was statistically invalid, an example of the ecological fallacy
Ecological fallacy
An ecological fallacy is a logical fallacy in the interpretation of statistical data in an ecological study, whereby inferences about the nature of specific individuals are based solely upon aggregate statistics collected for the group to which those individuals belong...
, and the best solution would be to call each of the felons into court and ask them to swear under oath which political candidate they voted for, after which time their vote would be removed from the total.
The trial began on May 23, with both sides presenting their evidence of manipulation. On June 6, 2005, Judge John E. Bridges
John E. Bridges
John E. Bridges is a Chelan County Superior Court Judge in Washington state. He presided over the high-profile legal challenge to the 2004 Washington gubernatorial election in which he upheld the election of Christine Gregoire. He grew up in Chelan County, and graduated from Seattle Pacific...
ruled that the Republican party did not provide enough evidence that the disputed votes were ineligible -or for whom they were cast- to overturn the election. Judge Bridges noted that there was evidence that 1,678 votes had been illegally cast throughout the state, but found that the only evidence submitted to show how those votes had been cast were sworn statements from four felons that they had voted for Rossi. He stated that the judiciary should exercise restraint; "unless an election is clearly invalid, when the people have spoken, their verdict should not be disturbed by the court." Nullifying the election, Bridges said, would be "the ultimate act of judicial egotism and judicial activism." He also concluded that according to his interpretation of the Washington Administrative Code, "voters who improperly cast provisional ballot
Provisional ballot
A provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there are questions in regards to a given voter's eligibility. A provisional ballot would be cast when:*The voter refuses to show a photo ID...
s should not be disenfranchised." He also rejected all claims of fraud and the Republican Party's statistical analysis, concluding that the expert testimony of the Republican party was "not helpful" and that the proportional reduction theory was not supported under any law in the state. Striking another blow against Rossi's court case, he stated that "the court is more inclined to believe that Gregoire would have prevailed under statistical analysis theory," rejecting the Rossi campaign's claim that improperly cast ballots led to Gregoire's victory.
Bridges removed the five votes from the final count: four for Rossi and one for Ruth Bennett. No evidence was brought before the court of any of the illegal votes benefitted Gregoire. The final margin of victory for Gregoire over Rossi was 133 votes. Rossi did not appeal to the state Supreme Court and the Washington State Republican party settled the case after paying $15,000 in court costs to the Democrats.
Judge Bridges' ruling was seen as a comprehensive defeat for Rossi. The judge admitted nearly every piece of evidence the Republican Party offered and then wrote a thorough, tough opinion rejecting the Republicans' claims (while criticizing the administration of the election, particularly in King County); Rossi was left with very little legal ground for a successful appeal. After receiving such a negative verdict, Rossi declined to appeal to the State Supreme Court, claiming that the political makeup of the Court would make it impossible for him to win, thereby ending all legal challenges to the election of Gregoire as the Governor of Washington.
Epilogue
Governor Gregoire, along with Sam Reed, formed an election reform task force that traveled throughout the major cities of the state. The panel presented an array of recommendations on March 3, including such suggestions as holding primary elections at an earlier date, requiring ID at polling places, implementing a central statewide voter database, and regular audits of registration records. Other election reform proposals have suggested the state move to an entirely mail-based ballot system.The 2004 election became a focus of media attention again in early 2007 when news broke that eight federal prosecutors including John McKay
John McKay (attorney)
John Larkin McKay is a former United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington.John Larkin McKay, a member of a prominent Republican family in the state, attended the University of Washington, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1978...
, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, had been fired
Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
The dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy was initiated by the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys on December 7, 2006 by the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice. Congressional investigations focused on whether the Department of Justice and the White...
. Republicans had hoped that after the election McKay would begin a federal investigation into alleged voter fraud, but he did not; McKay stated afterward that he would not convene a grand jury for purely political reasons and emphasized he had not seen any evidence of voter fraud in the Governor's race. However, later in 2007, members of ACORN were arrested for voter registration fraud in Pierce and King Counties when seven people filled out more than 1800 voter registration cards in a Seattle public library. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was given a 5 year agreement with the state of Washington to improve training procedures after the largest voter registration fraud prosecuted in Washington history.
External links
- Recount status from the Secretary of State's website. Accessed January 20, 2005.
- The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Elections
- The Seattle Times: Politics
- Tacoma News-Tribune: Election 2004
Candidates' websites
Washington government