Because he doesn’t like the fact that he lost, and it was proven in a bipartisan hand count of all the votes, Republican Dino Rossi is asking for a do-over for the Governors race in Washington state.
All ballots are counted, by hand which is THE most accurate way to count ballots. The ballots were counted by teams of both Democrats and Republicans. Rossi lost. He can’t handle it. In his words, “People need to know for sure that the next governor actually won the election.”
Christine Gregoire did, Rossi. Concede.
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Republican seeks ‘do-over’ in Washington governor’s race
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Republican Dino Rossi on Wednesday urged his Democratic rival in the closest governor’s race in state history to join him in calling for a revote.
“The uncertainty surrounding this election process isn’t just bad for you and me — it is bad for the entire state,” Rossi said, reading from a letter he said he sent to Democrat Christine Gregoire. “People need to know for sure that the next governor actually won the election.”
The Gregoire camp immediately dismissed the notion that a revote might be feasible. She is scheduled to be certified as Washington’s governor-elect Thursday, by a scant 129 votes out of more than 2.8 million cast.
“It’s irresponsible to spend $4 million in taxpayer money on a new election just because you don’t like losing this one,” Gregoire’s spokesman Morton Brilliant said.
Rossi made his plea for a revote, which would have to be approved by the state Legislature, during a news conference. “A revote would be the best solution for the people of our state, and would give us a legitimate governorship,” his letter said.
Thursday’s planned certification of the vote by Republican secretary of state Sam Reed will come more than eight weeks after Election Day. An unprecedented statewide hand recount — the third vote count — put Gregoire, a three-time attorney general, ahead for the first time, by just a tiny fraction of 1%.
Rossi, a real estate agent and former state senator, won the initial tally last month by 261 votes, triggering an automatic machine recount. He won that count, too, by 42 votes.
While noting that he could contest the election, Rossi said Wednesday that a legal challenge could drag on for months. The better way to clear up the mess, he said, would be to ask lawmakers to pass a bill calling for a special election as soon as the Democrat-controlled state Legislature convenes in early January for the 2005 session.
Earlier in the day, Rossi’s spokeswoman Mary Lane said he and his advisers, including state GOP Chairman Chris Vance, were weighing whether to contest the results.
Gov. Gary Locke said he strongly disagrees with Rossi’s call for another election. “The people have voted, and all votes properly cast were counted,” said Locke, a Democrat who’s retiring after two terms.
Amid the weeks of uncertainty, both Gregoire and Rossi have maintained transition offices, appointing teams to work on a state budget, cabinet appointments and an agenda for the upcoming Legislature.
Rossi had been using the title “governor-elect,” and his family even toured the Governor’s Mansion.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.
Hmmmmm…… Not only were there more votes counted by hand than there were registered voters, but the military votes were not counted because they were “sent out” a day late And the only votes counted by hand were in King County—the biggest liberal county in the state. It’s no wonder the dems didn’t want to count the votes east of the mountains by hand. This election has fraud written all over it, and who to blame it on….. the dems run the elections, and the liberal Washington state judges back them. But all said, this may not be all bad. If Rossi concedes, this will energize the republican party like you would not believe for the next election and the dems will lose out even bigger in Washington state following suit with the rest of the country. The RED is spreading!!!
It’s too bad that you don’t actually do any investigation or reading before you posted your comments to this story. Hand recounts were done THROUGHOUT the state, for every single county that had hand countable ballots. Those ballots were counted by a team that consisted of one Democrat and one Republican, who had to agree on the vote on the ballot. And King County — the biggest liberal county in the State — uses touchpad, black box voting. That means that they don’t HAVE paper trails to count for the majority of voters, because they voted on electronic voting machines.
Get your facts straight. And when you do, don’t hide behind an anonymous post. Use at least a real email address.