NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, May 23, 2005

Story Continues Below

  The challenge was to go to trial Monday. Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges moved the case to the county auditorium to accommodate the scores of attorneys, reporters, politicians and spectators who planned to attend.

Rossi, a former state senator and commercial real estate agent, won the first count by 261 votes and a machine recount by 42 votes - seemingly a stunning upset for Gregoire, a three-term attorney general in a Democratic-leaning state.

But during a hand recount of 2.9 million ballots, the Democratic stronghold of Seattle made Gregoire the winner by just 129 votes. Gregoire was inaugurated in January, amid protests from Rossi supporters.

The trial was expected to focus on problems involving human error in vote counting that are similar to allegations raised in Ohio last year and in Florida in 2000.

Both sides have been hastily revising their strategies over the past few weeks, as lawyers took depositions from election officials around the state. Neither Gregoire nor Rossi plan to attend the trial.

In a legal brief filed Friday, Republicans alleged for the first time that fraud swayed the election. The GOP was emboldened by depositions last week in which King County election workers said they submitted false absentee ballot reports, with the knowledge of their supervisors, before the election was certified.

"In the view of the Petitioners, there is ample evidence of fraud, and of the opportunity for fraud, sufficient to give the Court ... authority to annul the election," the GOP attorneys wrote.

It's legally easier to overturn an election for fraud than for simple mistakes.

Democrats say Gregoire's election was not the scandal the GOP is depicting.

"There was nothing really unique about this election in the number of errors that were made or the severity of the errors," said Democratic State Party Chairman Paul Berendt.

In fact, Democrats have been trying to beat Republicans at their own game, by finding errors in Republican-leaning counties that would offset the errors in King County.

Democrats have identified 700-plus felons who allegedly voted illegally, to compete with the GOP's 900-plus felon voters. In pretrial briefs, the Democrats also say 1,899 votes in Rossi-friendly areas were counted without the proper signature verification and should be thrown out.

Gregoire won only eight of Washington's 39 counties when all the votes were counted, recounted by machine, and recounted again by hand. She was losing until Seattle counted its last votes - the same thing that happened in 2000 when Sen. Maria Cantwell defeated Republican Slade Gorton.

If the Republican challenge succeeds, experts say it would encourage more election challenges in close races across the country. Both national parties have rushed to the aid of their candidates and raised much of the millions of dollars the case has cost so far.

Rossi wants a new election, although most Washington residents don't. A March poll of 800 voters by a GOP consulting firm found that while 56 percent believed Rossi was the true winner, only 39 percent wanted a new election.

The ultimate outcome will ripple beyond Washington state. If Rossi gets the new election he desires, experts say it would herald more to come.

"If he wins this challenge, presumably it brings to the forefront the argument that every single vote has to be scrutinized in every single election," said Washington state pollster Stuart Elway. "It will be tempting in any race that's close to do a challenge."

© 2005 The Associated Press

Editor's note:
Elvis meets Nixon – check it out – Click Here.
Hear John Wayne, "Why I love America" – Click Here.
God wants you to be rich, not poor! Find out the secret biblical lessons to success – Click Here Now

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
2004 Elections