''A Swift Marine for a Revote''

As expected, "On Tuesday, radio stations began running ads paid for by the state Republican party, declaring the governor's election a "certified mess" and urging people to petition the Legislature for a revote. The ad focuses on a Marine wounded in Fallujah, Tyler Farmer of Everett, who didn't get his ballot until Nov. 3. Republicans have adopted military voters as the poster children for the revote effort, claiming many were wrongly disenfranchised while fighting to defend democracy."-from the P-I story tonight, "Democrats in Legislature quash hopes for revote in governor's race." The article quotes Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, who says, ""We are following the rules and we need to live by those rules, and not just call for a do-over because we don't like the results" and mentions that "Secretary of State Sam Reed, also a Republican, said there's no evidence of any systemic problems with the military vote. Every county in the state mailed absentee ballots to registered military voters by early October, Reed said, and the U.S. Department of Justice even watched over the process to make sure it was done right." The article ends with "State Republican leaders planned a revote rally in Olympia for next Tuesday, the second day of the 2005 legislative session." And finally, it provides the website address for the revote call. Update: The Wednesday morning Seattle Times story, "Election scrutiny reveals provisional-vote flaws," raises new doubts about the integrity of the local vote and is prompting new questions about King County's election procedures. The problem: "An unknown number of provisional voters, some of whom may not even have been registered to vote, improperly put their ballots directly into vote-counting machines at polling places, King County's elections superintendent said yesterday." The article gives Rossi supporters another opportunity to score points in the spin wars: "State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance, who plans to discuss the provisional-ballot issue at a news conference today, said it constituted a serious lapse in election security." Unlike the Times story, a new story in the Wednesday morning P-I, "GOP may object to ratification of governor vote," allows the other side have a voice in the message battle: "Gregoire said she thinks the Republicans' threats are bad for the people of Washington. "I find it highly unfortunate that we continue to have this kind of rhetoric that I hear out there. The idea that these individuals as auditors have not performed their jobs admirably -- there's nothing further from the truth. She implored people to reserve judgment about discrepancies between votes counted and lists of voters who cast ballots until county elections officials have time to explain. "Calm down," Gregoire said. "Let the process take its place." KOMO News goes with the AP story that the P-I used Tuesday night.