McDonald v Reed :: 153 Wn2d 201
Category: Initiative and Elections
In the initial counting of ballots cast in the 2004 Governor’s race Republican Dino Rossi edged Democratic candidate Christine Gregoire by a very small margin of votes. The Democratic Party petitioned the Court to recount ballots in King County, a Democratic stronghold, using new uniform standards not in effect at the time of election. These measures would allow the addition of ballots previously rejected, but which might have been counted if cast in a different county since no uniform measures existed for all counties. Various counties employed disparate procedures and tests for comparing signatures. King County did reject a higher percentage of ballots than other counties for this reason but no discriminatory intent could be discerned.
Current statutes RCW29A.60.110 mandates that ballots be recounted only if they were tabulated in the first count, but ballots in question were never counted in the first tabulation. King County followed existing statutes in counting the initial ballots and it is not incumbent upon the Court to change the rules in the middle of a closely contested election or any election for that matter. The Court rightly rejected the petition since existing law had originally been adhered to.
Rating the Usual Suspects:
| pass | Ahearne, Thomas F | |
| pass | Alexander, Gerry | |
| pass | Braden, E Mark | |
| pass | Bridge, Bobbe | |
| pass | Chambers, Tom | |
| pass | Fairhurst, Mary E | |
| pass | Hamilton, Daniel R | |
| pass | Horne, Gerald A | |
| pass | Ireland, Faith | |
| pass | Johnson, Charles | |
| pass | Joly, Janine E | |
| pass | Korrell III, Harry JF | |
| pass | Kuffel, Thomas W | |
| pass | Lowe, Steven M | |
| pass | Madsen, Barbara | |
| pass | Magnano Jr, Marco J | |
| pass | Maguire, Robert J | |
| pass | Maleng, Norman | |
| pass | Metzger, Thomas A | |
| pass | Owens, Susan | |
| pass | Richard, Jeffrey A | |
| pass | Spitzer, Hugh | |
| pass | Verhulp, Ryan E | |
| fail | Burman, David J | |
| fail | Colgan, Beth A | |
| fail | Hamilton, Kevin J | |
| fail | McBrayer, Ryan J | |
| fail | Rava, William C | |
| fail | Sipos, Charles C |