05/24/2005

By REBECCA COOK  / Associated Press

The judge hearing the challenge to Washington's 2004 gubernatorial election ruled Tuesday that Republicans should be allowed to introduce evidence about King County's inability to match votes to voters.

Republicans claim that fraud played a key role in Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire's 129-vote victory over Republican Dino Rossi last November. Republicans are asking Chelan County Superior Court Judge John E. Bridges to nullify the governor's election, saying it was fatally flawed by illegal voting, especially in the Democratic stronghold of King County.

"The evidence is overwhelming that there was unbelievable neglect in King County and, we believe, outright fraud by high-ranking King County officials," GOP attorney Dale Foreman said Monday. "The system is broken and it must be fixed. This case is our effort to fix that problem in the long run, and to right a wrong in the short run."

The county recorded several hundred more votes than it has voters. Democrats had tried to block this evidence, saying Republicans had brought it up too late.

"I don't believe the claim is new," Chelan County Superior Court Judge John E. Bridges said Tuesday. However, he said, his ruling doesn't mean the Republicans are home free: "The court is not in a position at this time to determine that these are illegal votes."

The court also heard testimony Tuesday from Chelan County Auditor Evelyn Arnold, who talked about procedures for sending and counting ballots.

Later in the day, Bridges was expected to hear testimony from King County's elections superintendent, Bill Huennekens.

King County, the state's most populous, has been the target of Republicans' investigation into election errors and possible fraud.

The question is how far Bridges will let Republicans go with their claims. Democrats protested that the GOP unveiled the fraud allegations at the very last minute, with no evidence to back them up. Republican attorneys responded that they've been scrambling to gather evidence and were able to conduct some key depositions only a few days ago.

On Monday, Bridges agreed that fraud had never been part of the GOP's election contest petition, and said Republican lawyers couldn't use it as a basis for throwing out the election. But he left the door open for considering the evidence.

"The court does not believe there is a fraud causation element to this case, for whatever that's worth," Bridges said. "I am not saying that the evidence is not admissible."

Thomas Ahearne, attorney for the secretary of state, said the judge will probably revisit the fraud question. The secretary of state's office is defending the election.

"They are still going to be producing all the evidence," Ahearne said. "The judge is going to wait until the end of the day to see if they can connect the dots."

The dots include: sworn testimony from a King County elections worker who said she submitted a false mail ballot report with her higher-up's knowledge; King County's failure to match every vote with a registered voter; and evidence of illegal, felon votes being counted.

In a deposition last week, King County mail ballot supervisor Nicole Way said she and Garth Fell, assistant election superintendent, agreed to a report that falsely showed that all absentee ballots had been accounted for. In his deposition, Fell said Huennekens knew about the flaws in the report before the county canvassing board certified the results.

"He allowed this fraud on the citizens to go forward," Foreman alleged in his opening statement.

Huennekens' boss, Election Director Dean Logan, is expected to testify later in the trial.

Democrats and their lawyers, meanwhile, scoffed at the GOP's fraud allegations.

"There is no question who won this election," Democratic attorney Kevin Hamilton said in his opening statement, standing by a poster-sized copy of the certification of Gregoire's election. Instead of fraud, Hamilton said, the GOP is presenting "a loose collection of administrative errors.

"When all the evidence is reviewed it will be clear petitioners have failed to carry their burden of proof," Hamilton said.

Rossi filed the election challenge after winning the first two counts, only to lose a final, hand recount by 129 votes to Gregoire. On Monday, Gregoire's office said she was too busy to follow the trial. Rossi's campaign office said he watched it on television. Neither plans to attend the trial.

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On the Net:

TVW is televising the election trial and streaming it online, http://www.tvw.org