Elaine Thompson / Associated Press
The Republican revote protest at the Capitol on Tuesday: part of the echo chamber.
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Usually, an election ends when the votes are counted. This year, Washington Republicans want to try something different: toss out the 129-vote hand-recount victory of Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire and hold a whole new election between her and her Nov. 2 opponents, Republican Dino Rossi and Libertarian Ruth Bennett. The GOP calls this a "revote." Why would the electoral system perform any better a second time? The idea is wacky. But then, so is the Washington electoral system.
Every day, there have been new revelations: dead people voting, felons voting, errors in the processing of ballots. Every day, too, Republicans shine a light on facts that do not surprise election bureaucrats but make the rest of us hang our heads in shame: Soldiers don't always get to vote. Lists of voters and the number of votes cast are never completely reconciled because eligibility checking—such as it is—occurs at the beginning of the electoral process. Every day, these real flaws in the system are decried, with plenty of rhetorical flourish, in the vast Republican echo chamber that is the blogosphere, talk radio, and newspaper letters columns.
On Tuesday, Jan. 11, the cries were heard in another echo chamber, the newly remodeled state Capitol. Their party already had sued to overturn the election results, but Republican legislators tried to help the revote cause by seeking to delay the inauguration of Gregoire. Their effort in a joint session of the state House and Senate failed along party lines, 80-65, with the exception of one Dinocrat, Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch. No matter. The Republicans' effective invocation of wrongdoing seems to be everywhere.
As the Legislature began its 105-day session this week, and on the eve of Gregoire's swearing in Wednesday, Jan. 12, the GOP was in the midst of a beautifully conceived and wonderfully executed campaign in the court of public opinion. While the party will need an actual legal ruling, probably by the state Supreme Court, to force a new election, the GOP is banking a whole lot of political capital for the future. The Democrats, meanwhile, are making Gregoire's victory Pyrrhic in a couple of ways: They have barely mounted a defense of her legitimacy, and the newly elected chief executive makes matters worse every time she talks about the botched election. (Advice to future governors-elect: Never mention your adult daughter's purchase of a gown for the inaugural ball while trying to convince the people to accept an election outcome.)
This rhetorical imbalance is partly the result of the basic electioneering tendencies of both parties. Nothing makes the GOP grass roots grow deeper than election high jinks. While the lawyers representing Republicans in the revote campaign are very careful to say they have no evidence of fraud, the GOP's political leaders haven't been playing it so safe. Senate Republican Leader Bill Finkbeiner of Kirkland demonstrated how far the GOP is willing to go on flimsy evidence in a Dec. 30 e-mail: "I believe there is no question that King County's election process was biased in favor of Christine Gregoire. The King County elections process, run by an appointed elections official who reports to the Democratic King County executive, pushed the envelope repeatedly until they had the votes necessary for a Gregoire victory."
Because the GOP is so focused on fraud, the state party performed terribly during the recount process, actually allowing its candidate to lose the lead he held in the initial count and the machine recount (see "The Republicans Blow It," Dec. 29, 2004). The Democrats won the hand recount because they are better at finding votes—even after the ballots have been cast. The Dems aren't so particular about whether every little rule has been followed as long as they get those votes counted by the system. No wonder they are having trouble responding to evidence of a flawed electoral process. They've never been terribly concerned about such problems.
This difference in approach to elections will next be played out most significantly in court. On Friday, Jan. 7, the Rossi campaign and its allies officially challenged the governor's election in Chelan County Superior Court in Wenatchee. The Democrats say the GOP is looking for a small-town judge to toss the election. The Republicans claim it's better they sue in a county where they need not worry about bias. The lawsuit alleges that the number of illegally cast votes and valid votes that were rejected "renders the true result of the election uncertain." Attorney Harry Korrell of Davis Wright Tremaine explains that his Republican clients need not prove fraud. They just have to convince a judge the system performed so poorly that Gregoire's 129-vote win doesn't hold up. (Davis Wright Tremaine also counts Seattle Weekly and other media outlets as clients.)
Democrats counter that the proper venue for contesting a gubernatorial election is actually not the state judiciary but the Legislature, both chambers of which are conveniently controlled by their party. "I'm not certain that anybody can challenge a governor's election in front of a judge," says Democratic Party attorney David McDonald of Preston Gates. He says the election of nine state constitutional officers, which include the governor, abides by different rules than those that apply to the election of lesser offices, like mayor or county executive. McDonald quotes article 3, section 4 of the state constitution: "Contested elections for such officers shall be decided by the Legislature in such manner as shall be determined by law." That means the courts have no jurisdiction, he argues.
