Gregoire Certified As Washington Governor

UPDATED - Wednesday January 12, 2005 8:49am from our sister station WJLA-TV


OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - On the eve of her scheduled inauguration, Democrat Christine Gregoire was certified by legislators as winner of the election for governor while her supporters traded jeers with protesters outside the Capitol.

Republicans' attempt to delay the election certification failed Tuesday after an hour of debate. Just one Democrat crossed party lines to side with the GOP effort.

Gregoire lost the first two counts, then won by just 129 votes after a hand recount of 2.9 million ballots. Next comes Gregoire's inauguration, planned for noon Wednesday - and then it's on to the courts. A hearing in Republican Dino Rossi's effort to force a new election is scheduled for Friday.

The certification of the election by the Legislature is normally a formality. But during Tuesday's debate, Republicans pleaded in vain for a waiting period instead.

During the counting and recounting of the governor's election, many questions and discrepancies have surfaced. One of the main arguments in the Republicans' lawsuit is that King County, a Democratic stronghold and the state's largest county, cannot match more than a thousand votes to actual voter names. That discrepancy, Rossi argues, makes the election invalid on its face. Democrats disagree, saying the GOP lacks evidence of illegal votes and the state constitution sets a very high bar for throwing out the results of an election. They say the revote that Rossi wants would be unconstitutional.

While legislators met, about 1,800 Rossi supporters were outside to press their demand for a revote, and about 200 Gregoire supporters held a counterdemonstration. Chants of "revote!" overpowered the cries of "Go home, Rossi!"

http://www.wjla.com/headlines/0105/199879.html

Well, at least we get a consolation prize. <_<

She was interviewed on Unfiltered today. She is going to make voting reform part of her inaguaration speech!

She may be the voice we need for this - she is living proof!

Dear Democratic Friend,

Today, just before noon Christine Gregoire was sworn in as our Governor. I want to thank all of our party leaders, precinct committee officers and party activists who helped to make this a reality. Through your perseverance, during the election and the subsequent recount, Christine Gregoire has been elected Governor and will be putting forth many Democratic issues and agenda items.

Thank you for all your help,

Paul Berendt
Chair, Washington State Democrats

I suddenly have this urge to move to Washington...