by Chris Bowers
Counting and recounting is still taking place in a few elections across the nation. Here are the most prominent ones:
WA-Gov
Today is the final day of counting in this race, which currently has Rossi-R ahead of Gregoire-D by a preposterous 19 votes out of more than 2.7 million cast:
What they will find out this afternoon, when the counties are required by law to finish counting ballots and certify their results, is who won the most votes. But a mandatory recount is almost certain, so the outcome probably won't be official until at least next week. And before either candidate is declared a winner, they may have to survive legal challenges to the result.
After yesterday's counting, Rossi had a 19-vote lead over Gregoire. In other words, after nearly 2.8 million votes have been tallied, the race is a virtual tie.
About 6,100 ballots remain to be counted today; more than half are in counties where Rossi is leading.
While it is true that more than half of the remaining ballots come from counties where Rossi is leading, his lead in these counties is smaller than Gregoire's lead in the other counties with ballots remaining. Still, there seems to be a very slight edge to Rossi in this race. We will find out more tonight.
NY-27
In the struggle to up the Democratic total in the House from 200 to 201, Democrat Brian Higgins looks to win an open seat currently held by a Republican. He is being challenged by Nancy Naples, who has not yet conceded, even though things look grim for her:
Chautauqua County officials have about 4,500 paper ballots to count. Counting Erie and Chautauqua Counties, there's a combined 13,000 paper ballots to be counted.
Naples is expected to pick up a majority of those Chautauqua County ballots, but she'll need close to 70-percent of those ballots just to close the current gap with Higgins.
"Hopefully by the end of the day Tuesday, we'll have a good sense of where the votes are in both Erie and Chautauqua Counties. And we'll be able to give candidates some guidance as to what we project the winner to be," added Mohr.
Yesterday, officials from Erie County's Board of election counted ballots. By the end of the day, Higgins had gained 258 additional votes, giving him an overall lead of 3,385 votes.
Naples only leads in Chautauqua county by
a 57-43 margin, so the 70% she needs is a longshot. Higgins is clearly favored here.
IN-09
Recount ahead:
The Indiana State Recount Commission on Tuesday approved a recount in the 9th Congressional District, expected to be the largest and most expensive recount since the commission was created.
The Democratic Party and Rep. Baron Hill, who lost to Republican challenger Mike Sodrel by 1,485 votes in the southern Indiana congressional district, filed for the recount after questions arose over whether optical-scan voting systems recorded straight-party votes erroneously.
The Palladium-Item last week first reported that optical-scan equipment problems led to a recount in Franklin County and changed the outcome of a county council race.
A story on page A3 of today's Palladium-Item reports that Franklin isn't the only Indiana county that had programming troubles with optical scan voting equipment this year.
Ripley, Brown and Carroll counties each had a different problem, ranging from handcounting a race because the software program didn't comply with Indiana law to 63 unvoted ballots in one precinct, according to the scanner's tally tape.
In the 9th district race, Sodrel said a "substantial number" of ineligible voters may have cast ballots in Monroe County, and that it could be impossible to determine who received the most votes in that county.
The commission approved a recount that will cover the 613 districts and 280,000 voters.
Realistically, the only way Hill has a chance to overcome 1,485 votes is if there were substantial problems with the voting machines, as per his claim. If Democratic claims on this matter are accurate, then this race is a toss-up. Otherwise, Sodrel has the advantage.
NY-35, State Senate
Incumbent Republican Nick Spano holds a 100-vote lead over Andrea Stewart-Cousins going into a recount. I guess this one isn't as big a deal as the other three, but being from New York, I love the idea of Spano going down. Maybe there is still hope.
