Ohio secretary of state resists subpoena

Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell is seeking a court order to avoid testifying in a court challenge of the November vote. Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, representing Blackwell, told the AP that the 37 voters contesting the election "are not trying to actually contest the presidential election but are merely using this litigation to cast public doubt on the voting system of the State of Ohio without a shred of evidence."

Lawyers for the voters have also sent notices of deposition to President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and White House advisor Karl Rove, as well as to a number of Ohio county election officials.

With Democrat Chris Gregoire ahead of Republican Dino Rossi in the Washington state governor’s race by 129 votes, it appears the long deadlocked election may finally be decided. Last week, the second recount of this extremely close race put Gregoire 8 votes ahead of Rossi, and then the state supreme court ruled that King County could count some 700 votes that had been mistakenly tossed out because the county failed to transfer signatures from paper to electronic files. Those votes put Gregoire ahead by 130 votes, and with that the state announced the second recount finished. But Rossi and the Republicans vowed to fight on. They requested that other counties re-examine rejected votes. But this week county election officials across the state turned down the requests. State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance continues to criticize the election, saying that King County violated state law by permanently altering ballots in which voter intent was apparently clear but marked for more than one candidates.