Reply #1: If you read the Times you also saw this article [View All]

Reed says county has right to fix error, tally 735 ballots

By David Postman

Seattle Times chief political reporter


OLYMPIA — If the state Supreme Court stops King County from counting 735 disputed ballots in the governor's race, it will invalidate recount totals in other counties, according to court papers filed yesterday by the Secretary of State's Office.

Attorneys for Secretary of State Sam Reed say counties across the state made errors that were corrected by canvassing boards, which resulted in new votes being counted.

Attorney Thomas Ahearne argues that if the court now rules that King County can't correct errors during a recount, other counties will have to comb through results in both the completed machine recount and the hand recount to pick out any votes that they had added when correcting errors. The hand recount has been completed in all but King County.

Reed maintains that King County has the same right as every other county to correct errors during the recount. Rulings on the validity of ballots are made by local canvassing boards, three-person panels in each of 39 counties. If the court rules that King County can't count the 735 disputed ballots, Reed says, that means no county should have been able to reconsider ballots after the initial count.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002125837_recount21m.html