Washington governor sworn in after 'orange' rally

As Democrats prepared to celebrate the certification of Christine Gregoire's 129-vote victory after a third recount in Washington state's court-contested gubernatorial election, an estimated 1,700 orange-clad supporters of Republican candidate Dino Rossi gathered yesterday in a Ukraine-inspired demonstration at the state Capitol in Olympia to demand a revote.

Protester at GOP rally in Olympia, Wash., puts spotlight on reports that votes in the names of deceased citizens counted in Democrat-dominated King County. (Photo: WorldNetDaily)

The rally aimed to bolster popular support before Republican lawyers appear Friday in Chelan County Superior Court in Wenatchee to present their case to re-do the November governor's election.

Among many irregularities, particularly in Democrat-dominated King County, the GOP cites votes by dead people and felons, mistakenly counted provisional ballots, irrevocably altered ballots, uncounted military ballots that were sent late and at least 2,000 votes that cannot be matched to voter names. On nine different occasions, amid vote tabulation that showed Rossi with a lead, King County election handlers found additional batches of votes they claimed had been mysteriously lost, uncounted or incorrectly canvassed.

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After the initial count, Rossi led by 261 votes out of about 2.9 million cast and was certified the winner when a machine recount showed him ahead by 42 votes. But Gregoire and Washington Democrats refused Rossi's call to concede and asked for a hand recount, to which they were entitled by law, although Republicans claimed it was not as accurate as a machine tally.

Rally points to irregularities in Washington governor's election. (Photo: WorldNetDaily)

Democrats contend the GOP lacks evidence to meet the state constitution's high standard for dismissing election results. Both sides expect the case to end up in the state Supreme Court.

Gregoire calls the idea of a revote "absolutely ludicrous," but a poll by Seattle's KING-TV showed 53 percent of Washingtonians believe Rossi won the election and 36 percent think Gregoire won.

A new survey released today shows 62 percent in the state want a new election, with 36 opposed, according to KHQ-TV in Spokane, Wash.

Gregoire, neverthless, was sworn in today.

After the inauguration, Rossi issued a statement pointing out most Washington voters don't recognize Gregoire won.

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"I agree with the current governor that every vote should be counted, but
with an important distinction: Every legal vote should be counted, and every vote should have a voter," Rossi said. "I don't think that's too high of a standard to ask for.

"In our democracy, power comes from the people," he continued. "But we don't know the true will of the people because this election process has been so flawed."

Yesterday, the Rossi supporters' frequent chants of "revote" were countered by a smaller crowd of about 200 Gregoire backers who shouted "We won!" and "Go home, Rossi!"

At one point, the Republican supporters echoed 1960s protesters, chanting, "The whole world is watching!"

One demonstrator, wearing a skeleton mask, joined the crowd with a sign hanging around his neck that said "I voted in King County."

The GOP featured a roster of speakers that included the party's 2000 gubernatorial nominee, John Carlson, a radio talk show host for KVI in Seattle who has helped rally support for a revote.

Demonstrators at Olympia, Wash., rally inspired by the Ukrainian 'orange' revolution. (Photo: WorldNetDaily)

Much of the investigative work that revealed irregularities was done by Internet blogger Stefan Sharkansky, contributor to SoundPolitics.com.

Sharkansky, whose weblog banner is decked in orange, the color of Ukraine's popular revolt, told the crowd they were "in the middle of a kind of citizen's revolution," under way because "the established order of things is broken and we're changing it."

Bob Williams, head of the Olympia-based think tank Evergreen Freedom Foundation, called on the FBI to investigate King County and impound its election records.

Overhead, an airplane towed a banner advertising www.NotMyGovernor.com.

A website called www.revotewa.com collected more than 204,000 signatures that Rossi supporters presented to lawmakers.

Inside the Capitol yesterday, lawmakers took up a GOP motion to delay certification of the election for two weeks while the courts address the case.

But 80 Democrats outnumbered the 64 Republicans and one Democrat who supported the motion.

Republican state Sen. Stephen Johnson told fellow lawmakers the questions surrounding the election's legitimacy cannot be ignored.

"We shouldn't proceed because there's an elephant in the living room – we'll add a donkey to make it fair – and we're acting as if nothing has happened."