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Republicans win Washington state election challenge
Mon May 2, 2005 09:22 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=8365992

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A judge gave Washington state Republicans a victory on Monday that kept alive their legal challenge to last November's razor-thin election win by Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire.
Gregoire took office in January following a 129-vote margin of victory -- the closest in a governor's race in state history.

Republican candidate Dino Rossi has refused to concede the race, which he won narrowly in the first count only to lose in a later, final recount.

Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges has ruled Republicans can use what is known as "proportional analysis" in their legal argument to potentially take votes away from Gregoire.

"That was a very good day in court for us," said Mary Lane, Rossi's spokeswoman. "If we had lost this, it would have been impossible to continue."

The trial in the Republicans' lawsuit is scheduled for May 23.

With the slim margin out of a total of 2.9 million votes, proportional analysis could tip the vote in either direction, since illegal votes, mostly from felons, would be subtracted from each candidate in the same proportion that votes were cast for them in each precinct.

In the count after the election, illegal votes were disallowed in a way that took an equal number from each candidate.

But in an example of proportional analysis used in court, if 10 improper votes in a precinct were found that went 60 percent for Gregoire and 40 percent for Rossi, she would lose six votes and he would lose four, instead of the votes being subtracted equally.

Paul Berendt, the Democratic Party's state chairman, said the ruling also helped Democrats, who will be allowed to present evidence in the trial of illegal voting that helped Rossi.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.