Let The Vote Recounting Commence

The race for governor of Washington is still undecided. On November 17th, after the first tally, Republican Dino Rossi led Democrat Christine Gregoire by 261 votes, out of 2.8 million. By law a second, machine recount was required because the result was within 2000 votes. By November 24th, the second count had narrowed Rossi's margin to only 42 votes. Washington state has 39 counties, so the result was basically a one vote difference per county. Gregoire gained 1289 votes, while Rossi picked up only 1070 votes. State law allows for a third and final manual recount if requested. Given how close things were, if the Democrats could pay for a full recount, at 25 cents per vote, they likely would and had to make the request by today.

This afternoon, the Washington state Democratic party presented the Washington Secretary of State office with the necessary funds required for a final, manual, state-wide recount of the gubernatorial race. Counting will start again next week, and be concluded by December 23rd. You can track the results as they come in at the Washington Secretary of State Web site.

The following is an open letter to Dino Rossi. Not surprisingly his party has tried to block the recounts, condemn Gregoire for not conceding, or disqualify as many ballots as they can that they feel might be unfavorable to their candidate.

Dear Dino Rossi,

I read the quote by your spokesperson, Mary Lane, in the Seattle Post Intelligencer today:

"It sounds like they want to make Florida look like a tea party," complained Mary Lane, a Rossi spokeswoman. "It's outrageous, it's dangerous and it shows how little Christine Gregoire cares about the Democratic process. She will do virtually anything to try to win.

"We are not going to let this stand. We will not let her try to steal this election. Dino has won this election twice legitimately and Christine Gregoire is trying to overturn this election illegitimately."

Need I remind you that Washington state law provides candidates with the opportunity to pay for a manual recount, for circumstances just like this gubernatorial election, the closest of it's kind in the nation - ever? Christine Gregoire is asking for a state-wide recount to ensure the recount is applied everywhere evenly, and fairly. Although the law allows her to pick and choose counties, she has not done so precisely because she does care about the democratic process.

Need I remind you that whomever is declared the final winner after all legal vote counting has ended will have won only once, for one term, not as many times as the votes were counted? To say you have already won twice is like saying that after a review of a disputed touchdown the score will be doubled. One can only expect, by inference, that should the manual recount result in a final tally that gives you the governorship you will expect to serve three terms!

Christine Gregoire is not doing "virtually anything to try to win". She is simply exercising sound judgement at a time when the vote difference is 1 vote per county, so close no other election of this kind has ever been closer, to make sure, in each county, that a 1 vote mistake hasn't been made in the count that might have altered the final tally. Any candidate in her position would be stupid, and unfit to be governor, were they to not ask for this recount. Both candidates need Washingtonians to believe that the final result is a true result, and this is the process set out by state law, that has been agreed to by lawmakers past, both Democrat and Republican, to do just that.

So, please, enough word games, enough fake outrage, enough politicking. Let the laws of the people of Washington be respected and support the recount. Do that, and the people of Washington will support the winner, including you, if that is who it is.

Sincerely,

Daniel Kirkdorffer