County recounted ballots in the race for Governor
June 17, 2008 · Updated 4:25 PM
The county Elections Division spent Nov. 20 scanning 10,149 ballots in conjunction with the statewide recount in the race for Governor.
The local recount took place in the office space used by the department in Friday Harbor to tally results of the Nov. 2 election. Ballots were re-scanned by the optical scan machines that have been used to count votes since 1993. The machines were manufactured by the Diebold company, Elections Supervisor Dan Gillespie said.
The recount was required by state law because the margin between Repulican Dino Rossi and Democrat Christine Gregoire was less than one half of 1 percent. Rossi led Gregoire by 261 votes, just .009 percent of the 2.8 million votes cast statewide.
Locally, Gregoire received almost 60 percent of ballots cast, or 5,872 votes. Rossi collected 3,661 votes, or aboutt 37 percent. Libertarian candidate Ruth Bennet received 320 votes, and seven write-in votes were cast in the race.
Gillespie said 63 votes were added to the final tally after the Canvass Board reviewed 146 questionable ballots. On Nov.15, the board inspected 87 provisional ballots and 59 absentee ballots. It rejected 83. Most of the ballots that did not qualify were submitted by voters who were not registered to vote locally, he said.
San Juan County had an 84 percent voter turnout in the general election.
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