November 10, 2004
AND REDDER...:
Rossi ahead, names team for possible transition (Ralph Thomas, 11/10/04, Seattle Times)
Riding a wave of absentee votes largely from rural and Eastern Washington, Republican Dino Rossi yesterday surged ahead of Democratic Attorney General Christine Gregoire in Washington's nail-biter race for governor.Posted by Orrin Judd at November 10, 2004 10:54 AMAfter trailing Gregoire by nearly 9,000 votes at the start of the day, Rossi jumped to a nearly 3,000-vote lead last night.
About half of the state's counties tallied about 60,000 ballots yesterday, leaving an estimated 156,000 ballots to count statewide.
Nearly all of yesterday's ballot counts took place in counties where Rossi is leading. No ballots were tallied in King County, Gregoire's main stronghold, which estimates it has 46,000 ballots left.
Larry Sabato pointed out in his look to 2006 that if Rossi does eventually lose here he will make an ideal challenger to Ms. Cantwell in 2006. Not a bad consolation prize.
Posted by: Jeff at November 10, 2004 11:20 AMIf there are 46K ballots still out, mostly from Dem areas, why do we think the 3K vote margin will hold up?
Posted by: AWW at November 10, 2004 11:54 AMAWW, you misread it. There are 156,000 ballots left.
About 56,000 of those are from counties Gregoire won, and about 100,000 are fromcounties Rossi won.
Posted by: Timothy at November 10, 2004 12:46 PMWhy is this taking so long?
Most absentee ballots are GOP for some reason.
Posted by: Bart at November 10, 2004 4:11 PMIn Washington, absentee ballots only need be postmarked by election day. So, courtesy of the USPS, they'll dribble in for 2-7 days, then have to be counted by the various county auditors offices, who for whatever reason take their own sweet time.
The polls had Rossi gaining ground during the last two weeks, so it's not surprising that the late vote is breaking his way, particularly outside of Seattle.
Posted by: TimF at November 10, 2004 6:31 PM