It’s Gregoire by 130; is it over? Rossi: This wasn’t a clean election
It’s a total sham. If Chris Gregoire thinks democracy was well served by this, she’s out of her mind. It hasn’t been fair. It hasn’t been consistent. It hasn’t been democratic.
- Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane
A lot of heated words have been said during this recount. But with the election coming to a close, I am confident that we can begin to move forward as one state…. This is the biggest display of democracy I have ever seen.
- Christine Gregoire
If any of y’all have been paying attention, the Governor’s race in Washington STILL is up for grabs. It’s beginning to appear as if the Emerald State may finally be reaching the end of the road, but here we are at Christmas, and the election has yet to be certified.
Almost two months after Election Day, Gregoire now leads by 130 votes out of something like 4 million votes cast statewide. Someone is bound to be unhappy here. Depending on which side of the political fence you happy to occupy, the current result is either proof that democracy works or that, if you work hard enough, it is quite possible to steal an election (see Florida, 2000).
Of course, being a Liberal Democrat, I am happy to see Christine Gregoire pull ahead. At this point, it does look as if Dino Rossi is out of bullets. Nonetheless, 130 votes our of something like 4 million cast is well within any margin of error- and certainly not enough to silence any controversy over the “final” result.
The problem now is that, no matter who ends up on top when the election is finally certified, someone is going to be crying foul. You just cannot drag out an election for more than seven weeks past Election Day without bruising some egos. Gregoire finally decided that enough was enough, and she had announced that she would accept the result of this final recount, regardless of the result. It might be time for Dino Rossi to do the same, but now that he is 130 votes down, he’s crying foul. I can’t blame him.
CAN there truly be a winner in a situation such as this? Or will there be so much anger and acrimony that governing the State of Washington for the next four years will be virtually impossible? Stay tuned….
