Drama in the other Washington

Locked in what may be the tightest race of its size in U.S. history, Washington state is about to begin its third statewide count of this election. Republican gubernatorial candicate Dino Rossi is now just 42 votes ahead of his Democratic opponent, Chris Gregoire. Rossi stood 261 votes ahead after the first count, triggering an automatic machine recount (at least in all counties but the three where paperless electronic machines mean there’s nothing to recount). The gap closed in part because of a massive effort to ensure that voters whose absentee and provisional ballots were thrown out because they were unsigned or had signature discrepancies got a chance to have their ballots counted. The Democrats sued to force King County, home of Seattle and an overwhelming percentage of Democratic voters, to release the names of voters whose ballots had been rejected, so that the Gregoire campaign, heavily aided by labor union volunteers) could go door-to-door letting these voters know their ballots had been thrown out and offering them the chance to sign affidavits confirming their identity, so their ballots could be counted.

Gregoire and the Democrats faced the choice whether to demand a recount in a few Democrat-heavy precincts or to pay upwards of a million dollars for a complete, statewide recount. Faced with the bad play a selective recount would have gotten, Gregoire is asking for a statewide recount, but as of last night the state Democratic party was still $100,000 short of the $700,000 down payment required by tonight to initiate a statewide recount. Both MoveOn and Howard Dean’s Democracy for America have joined the fundraising effort. The Kerry campaign donated $250,000.

Showing just how wise Gregoire is to take the high road by demanding a statewide recount, despite the financial cost, Republican spin on the recount is take-no-prisoners. Rossi and other Republicans have urged Gregoire to concede. A spokesperson for Rossi told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Since they can't win this election legitimately, now they are just engaging in slick lawyer talk… What they really want to do is anything and everything to try to overturn this election."

The Republicans were livid over a letter to the secretary of state from Democrats demanding that the secretary of state “make it clear in (his) hand recount guidelines that ballots previously rejected by canvassing boards or election staff should be reviewed again.” Republicans labeled this a demand for a new count, not a recount (that’s some tricky English), and said Democrats were trying to change the rules mid-game.

There's been lots of moaning about the closeness of the election and the hassle of the recount, and the closeness may be due to some serious bungling by the Gregoire campaign (a few months ago she had a double-digit lead over Rossi, but she performed poorly in a debate and issued some crummy ads, among other missteps). Yet surely the measure of democracy is not efficiency or speed but everyone's voice being heard. By that measure, Washington state has reason to be immensely proud of its conduct of the recounts so far. The effort to ensure that every vote, including every provisional ballot cast by a registered voter, be counted has been heroic. Does democracy deserve less?