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Bellevue, WA – An internal e-mail adds to the evidence that the King County elections department knew about No Signature On File (NSOF) ballots well before it claimed to have discovered its “mistake.” King County rejected more than 700 ballots because it didn’t have signatures on file to match the signatures on the ballots. On Nov. 3, 2004, an e-mail sent to King County Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens included a list of NSOF voters. A copy of the e-mail is attached. But in December, when news of the NSOF ballots became public, King County Elections Director Dean Logan, Huennekens’ boss,...

Former candidate for governor Dino Rossi is expected to hold a press conference at 4 p.m. today. Tune in to NorthWest Cable News for live coverage or come back here for live video streaming.

Reality check on election contest rulings Gregoire & Dems lose most motions; New election still possible Bellevue, WA – Yesterday in Chelan County Superior Court, the Dino Rossi campaign won an overwhelming victory in Rossi’s election contest case. The judge rejected the Democratic Party’s efforts to throw the case out, allowing a trial to move forward, and although he specifically denied the Rossi campaign’s request for a revote, he left the path clear for nullifying the 2004 gubernatorial election. If the election is nullified, there will be a vacancy in the governor’s office and a new election must be held....

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Whoever wins the legal challenge to the governor's election, the citizens of Washington will pay. In fact, they're already paying. The state expects to spend about $200,000 of taxpayer money on private lawyers defending the Secretary of State's office. And every county auditor and prosecutor is spending thousands of taxpayer dollars in staff time to respond to the Republicans' lawsuit challenging the 129-vote victory of Gov. Christine Gregoire. Some say the lawsuit is bleeding resources from other areas of government. Republicans, convinced the election was irredeemably tainted, say the challenge is worth the cost. "We don't...

Guest columnist King County voters in good hands By Corky Mattingly Special to The Times I've been particularly troubled by one recurring comment regarding the gubernatorial recount in King County. It pertains to county Elections Director Dean Logan's professionalism and integrity. There also have been suggestions that Logan's decisions are based on partisan politics and are without justification or regard to Washington state law. As president of the Washington State Association of County Auditors, I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. All 39 counties conducted the recount process according to the rules currently in place, which are...

Rochester Republican Dan Swecker’s boycott of an inauguration ceremony last week for Democrat Christine Gregoire and the inaugural ball that followed had nothing to do with any disrespect by Swecker for the office of governor. Making such an erroneous claim or suggestion about Swecker misses the point of his protest, with which a majority of his constituents likely concur. The 20th District state senator, who represents Lewis County and parts of Thurston County, believes as do many others that the election for governor was so deeply flawed the result was illegitimate. Calling for a delay in legislative ratification of a...

Feds threatened suit over military ballotsBy David Postman and Ralph ThomasSeattle Times staff reporters   OLYMPIA — Less than a month before the November election, the U.S. Department of Justice threatened to sue Washington state because it was moving too slowly in mailing military ballots overseas. At that point Washington was the only state that hadn't mailed its overseas ballots. Questions about military ballots have come up frequently since the Nov. 2 election ended with a deadlocked governor's race. Democrat Christine Gregoire was certified governor-elect Dec. 30 and is to be sworn in Wednesday. But Republican Dino Rossi has...

Friday, January 7, 2005 · Last updated 2:34 p.m. PT Gregoire: 'Healing to be done' By DAVID AMMONS AP POLITICAL WRITER OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Gov.-elect Christine Gregoire on Friday pledged to tour the state to begin a healing process after an election that deeply divided voters and the political parties. "It's my job to help the state of Washington heal," she told a Capitol news conference called primarily to introduce an initial round of key appointees. She is keeping outgoing Gov. Gary Locke's chief of staff, Tom Fitzsimmons, for at least six months and his budget director, Marty Brown, will...

OK, I'll ask: Should we vote again? By DAVID HORSEY SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL CARTOONIST At a social gathering in early November, I was cornered by a key player in Christine Gregoire's gubernatorial campaign. He wanted me to know that one of my editorial cartoons had thrown the election to Gregoire's opponent, Dino Rossi. Being my friend, he made his accusation with good humor, but he was clearly serious and obviously disappointed in me. Meanwhile, I was getting heat at work from readers offended by cartoons they interpreted as unfair to Rossi. So it goes with my job. I make everyone...

County election officials across the state have turned down the Republican Party's request to reconsider rejected votes for gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, who is now faced with contesting the entire election or conceding. State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt called the county auditors' uniform refusal a clear sign that the never-ending governor's election has finally run its course. "Chris Gregoire will be the next governor of Washington state," Berendt said. "Canvassing boards have spoken, and they have clearly stated this election is done." With few or no openings left for Rossi, the Republicans redoubled their assault on the integrity of...

Here is Gov.-elect Christine Gregoire's victory speech, as delivered Thursday in the state Reception Room of the Capitol: Well, an election night without end has concluded. The votes have been counted, the count has been certified and I am honored to stand before you as governor-elect of the great state of Washington. Today could not have happened without the wonderful people who are with me today - the "First Mike" of the state of Washington, my husband Mike, and our two wonderful daughters, Courtney and Michelle, and we're joined by Speaker Frank Chopp today as well. I want to start...

Are numerous other counties counting previously rejected ballots? No. Case made by Secretary of State and Democrats is wrong Seattle, WA – Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed and Democratic leadership have proclaimed that King County is not alone in counting numerous ballots that were previously rejected by county canvassing boards. However the claims are untrue. In Chelan and Thurston counties, each reconsidered one previously rejected ballot. “Two counties, two ballots,” said Washington State Republican Party Chair Chris Vance. “That’s it.” While King County is revisiting hundreds upon hundreds of ballots that were previously rejected – not once but twice...

Republican emotions were inflamed by party chairman Chris Vance, who blamed King County elections officials, democrats, and even those 700 plus voters for this situation. Once again, he demanded their votes not be counted, and left the door open for calling for a whole new election if they are. "If there's another outcome or another decision and questionable or illegal ballots are brought into the process, we reserve all of our options," he said. . . . Democrat candidate Chris Gregoire said voter trust will be eroded more by disqualifying legitimate ballots than correcting mistakes by elections officials and counting...

Saturday, December 18, 2004 Another governor election may be in our best interest Given the fiasco going on up in King County with the second recount, we suspect more and more people are coming to the conclusion we should have another election for governor. That was suggested this week by former long-time Secretary of State Ralph Munro, a Republican who was highly respected for his job performance by people in both parties. ‘‘This thing could just degenerate and spiral downward,’’ Munro said Thursday of the second recount and all of the controversy and lawsuits it has generated, with more likely....

Ballot checks vary widely across state By Christine Willmsen and Susan Kelleher Seattle Times staff reporters It never mattered much — until this election. But the fact that one county in Washington verifies ballot signatures differently than another county has taken on more significance as the gubernatorial election hangs on a handful of votes. A Seattle Times survey of counties shows that procedures for evaluating signatures are highly subjective and vary widely from county to county. More than 3,400 ballots in Washington were rejected in the November election because the signatures didn't match those on file with elections officials. And...

Danny Westneat / Times staff columnist Counter for a day finds few bugs in recount process Lindsay McClellan is sitting across from me, sifting through a 4-inch stack of ballots, when she says the words that could change the course of state history: "We've got a smudge." I've been hired to count votes in the governor's race. We are sitting at a cramped folding table under fluorescent lights, one of 80 three-person teams that are counting, one at a time, King County's 898,574 votes. All activity at our table stops instantly. The glowering observers from the political parties loom over...

Up to 162 ballots missing By Keith Ervin Seattle Times staff reporter King County election officials will enter a locked "cage" in a warehouse this morning to look for a plastic mail tray they believe contains up to 162 misplaced absentee ballots. Elections Director Dean Logan said the ballots, like 573 other ballots that were improperly rejected, were set aside because workers couldn't find voter signatures that corresponded to them. But unlike the other ballots, these apparently were left behind and forgotten. The original 573 votes were mistakenly identified as having mismatched signatures and then disqualified. If the ballots are...

Republicans in Washington state suspect Democrats, with 500 patronage jobs at risk, are cheating in what is now the unprecedented third counting of the 2,883,341 ballots cast in the Nov. 2 election for governor.     In the current hand recount, Democrats keep discovering untabulated ballots. The state's Republicans, who thought they had elected Dino Rossi as the first Republican governor in 20 years, are furious.     State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance says he can't decide whether Democrat officials in heavily Democratic King County — where uncounted or improperly discarded ballots keep popping up — are "colossally incompetent or completely corrupt."...

Will Legislature pick governor? It could happen By David Postman Seattle Times chief political reporter OLYMPIA — The state Supreme Court's unanimous rejection of the Democratic Party's recount lawsuit yesterday settled — for the moment, at least — the legal issues in the contentious governor's election. But it also raised the prospect of the fight moving back into the political arena, with questions about whether the eventual loser will use a vaguely worded provision in the state constitution to try to force the Legislature to overturn the result. That, according to one attorney, "is the ultimate nuclear weapon in the...

The state Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously rejected the Democratic Party's petition to reconsider about 3,000 invalidated ballots in the hand recount of the extremely close governor's race. Now the spotlight turns to King County, where as many as 595 uncounted votes may be added to the recount on Wednesday, throwing the outcome of the election into even more doubt. On Tuesday night, a King County election official said 22 more ballots had been found in addition to the previous 573.Republican Dino Rossi won the Nov. 2 election by 261 votes and held a 42-vote lead over Democrat Christine Gregoire...