« Here's Your Handy Election Central Guide To Dem Leadership Battles | Home | CNN: Mel Martinez To Head Republican National Committee »
WA-08: Up To 20,000 More Votes To Count In Excrutiating Reichert-Burner Race
So it looks as if there still remain up to 20,000 votes to count in the excrutiating race between GOP Rep. Dave Reichert and Dem Darcy Burner. According to the Seattle Times, up to 20,000 votes have yet to be counted because some 100 bags of absentee ballots went uncounted because of problems relating to the bags being overstuffed. That means more waiting for a final outcome. Though Reichert's lead now stands at 3,514, Burner tells the Seattle Times she's heartened by the outstanding ballots: "If you were going to have a Democrat win this district ... this would be the way it would play out," she said.
Advertisement
The vast majority of Washingtonians vote by mail. ALL Oregonians vote by mail (or drop box.) Tabulation for both states has been excruciatingly slow. When the majority of races were registering 99 to 100% precincts in, OR & WA had 57 to 62% precincts in. (The day before they were all in the 30's.)
CONCLUSION: if a significant portion of the country should vote by mail, the suspense & drama of election night would disappear along with the coziness of precinct voting.
GAINS: generally more accurate & less frustrating voting: NO malfunctioning mschines, NO long lines, NO being redirected to another polling place, NO voter challenges & NO legal cases (if you don't get a ballot, you can't vote) & elimination of fraud IF election is properly audited. (OR audits both seven days prior & on election day.)
We, here in Oregon, feel the tradeoff is worth it. A number of years back, Oregon League of Women Voters spesrheaded the move for vote by mail.
November 13, 2006 10:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
An AP report just out says Reichert has won it, as the latest numbers from King County (which makes up the more Dem part of WA-08) has put him ahead.
Burner is pinning her hopes on the absentee ballots. In this election, absentee voters were allowed to take their ballots to polling places, and a large number of them chose to do so.
Is it possible to overcome a 4,000+ vote lead with those 20,000 votes, many of which will not be for WA-08? Are there any other votes remaining to be counted? I'm hoping that Burner will be able to pull it off, and I'm glad she isn't conceding until every vote is counted, but it sure looks dicey.
For anyone else who is watching this closely, the Washington Secretary of State's Election Results page for the 8th District has updates as the new numbers come in. The site has this statement on it:
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. --Paul Valery
November 13, 2006 11:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Burner has conceded. The race was over days ago, really, despite netroots efforts to keep it on life support.
November 14, 2006 1:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
The lead is over 7 standard deviations. Unless there's a really good reason to think the remaining votes are atypical, this isn't close at all.
November 14, 2006 4:38 AM | Reply | Permalink