Gregoire edges ahead of Rossi; potential for recount looms

By Ralph Thomas
Seattle Times Olympia bureau

DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES Democrats Christine Gregoire, left, and Sen. Patty Murray celebrate Tuesday night. While Murray coasted to victory, Gregoire's jubilation turned out to be premature; her race remains too close to call.

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But the race likely will remain too close to call until at least tomorrow and could be headed for a recount.

A dozen counties tallied absentee ballots yesterday, giving Gregoire a 14,300-vote lead over Rossi out of nearly 2 million ballots cast. Fifteen counties are scheduled to count more ballots today.

"All you can do is watch at this point," said state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance. "You can't influence it anymore."

The final outcome will depend on the number of outstanding absentee ballots — the state estimates there are 800,000 — and where they're from.

Rossi yesterday maintained his lead in 31 of 39 counties, including several larger counties, such as Snohomish and Pierce, that Gregoire was banking on winning.

	JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES Republican Dino Rossi, his family in the background, acknowledges supporters Tuesday night. He lost his lead to Gregoire as absentee ballots were counted yesterday.

But nearly one-third of the ballots left to count statewide are in King County, where Gregoire holds a 110,000-vote lead.

King County elections officials counted 96,000 absentee ballots yesterday and expect to tally an additional 200,000 by tomorrow.

Rossi's campaign advisers figure he needs to win at least 40 percent of the vote in King County to have a chance of winning statewide.

Early vote counts on Election Day had Rossi at 38 percent in King County, but after yesterday's count, he was at 40.1 percent.

State law requires a recount if the difference is less than one-half of 1 percent and less than 2,000 votes.

The race could wind up being the closest in more than 40 years. In 1960, Democrat Albert Rosellini won by slightly more than 1 percent of the total vote. Since then, the victory margin has been less than 5 percent once.

Both candidates are braced for a wrenching wait.

When Rossi left his election-night party, he was trailing Gregoire by several hundred votes. When he woke up yesterday, he was leading by slightly more than 1,000. But by evening, he was behind again.

For some members of both campaigns, the seesaw ordeal is bringing back memories of the 2000 race for U.S. Senate, which Democrat Maria Cantwell won by just one-tenth of a percent over Republican incumbent Slade Gorton. In that race, Gorton led by nearly 4,000 votes on election night and gained ground after the first few rounds of absentee-ballot counts. But Cantwell eventually overtook Gorton and, after a mandatory recount, was declared the winner 24 days after the election.

Gregoire adviser Christian Sinderman, who worked on Cantwell's campaign, said he had a "sudden and terrible realization" Tuesday night that the gubernatorial race was headed for a similar fate.

"It's not a piece of history I'm eager to relive," Sinderman said.

Three of Rossi's top advisers worked on the Gorton campaign.

This week, both sides have switched from campaign mode to ballot watch. The campaigns and both state parties dispatched trained volunteers to monitor the absentee counts in each county.

"It's a lot of standing around drinking coffee, watching people count ballots," Sinderman said. "It's not just a frustrating process. It's a boring process."

Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882 or rthomas@seattletimes.com

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