Murray Clings to Lead Over Rossi

UPDATED: Dino Rossi's bid to unseat Patty Murray could take a while: Washington votes by mail and results could take days to come in.

Latest: Incumbent Republican Congressman Dave Reichert, WA-8, turned back another challenge from a retired Microsoftie, Suzan DelBene, whose sporadic voting record became an issue in the campaign. Reichert, one of 8 House Republicans to vote for the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, cruised to a fourth term victory, 54 to 46 percent.

Reichert is a good fit for his district - fiscally conservative, but about as green as a Republican congressman can be in today's political environment and still stand to tell the tale. In Republicans for Environmental Protection's latest congressional scorecard, Reichert scored 97, making him the greenest Republican west of the Delaware River.

In the Senate race, incumbent Democrat Patty Murray is clinging to a narrow lead over Republican businessman Dino Rossi, a two-time gubernatorial candidate and former state senator. The Seattle Times reports that about half the estimated 2.4 million votes that were cast have been counted.

Washington is one of seven states without a personal income tax. It will remain so. By a 2 to 1 margin, voters soundly turned back Initiative 1098, which would have imposed an income tax on high earners.

Posted at 12:35pm

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Early results from Washington – Patty Murray is up by 3 percentage points. Total ballots counted: 1.3 million. Total ballots on hand to be processed: 485,000.

Other congressional results:

Second District – Incumbent Democrat Rick Larsen is down by less than a percentage point to John Koster.

Third District – Republican Jaime Herrera poised to pick up the open seat, ahead 53 to 47 percent.

Eighth District - Dave Reichert, one of eight House Republicans who voted for Waxman-Markey – up 54 to 46 percent.

Posted at 11: 48pm

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Latest from The Seattle Times: The King County Elections Department is reporting long lines at three special polling sites set up to assist the disabled and provide a last resort voting site for people claiming to have lost their mail-in ballots.

King County, like all but one Washington county, has mail-only balloting. Waits of up to two hours were estimated at the special polling sites in downtown Seattle, Bellevue, and at King County’s election headquarters in Tukwila (for non-Northwesterners, that’s pronounced Tuck-WILL-uh.). Voters in line at the special sites by poll closing time of 8 p.m. Pacific will be allowed to cast ballots.

Mail-in ballots must be postmarked today or put into special drop boxes no later than 8 p.m.

Posted at 10:05pm

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By this time next week, the state of Washington might be driving the rest of the country nuts.

The Senate race between incumbent Democrat Patty Murray and veteran Republican politico Dino Rossi is looking squeaky tight as the state enjoys a rare spot of fall sunshine today.

In all but one of the state’s 39 counties, Washington votes exclusively by mail. As long as a mailed ballot is postmarked by today, it counts – whether it arrives at county courthouses Wednesday, Thursday, or in the days beyond.

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed has forecast a 66 percent turnout rate, the highest in 40 years. Reed is pleading with tail-ending voters to drop off their ballots in special drop boxes rather than posting them, in order to move the counting along with a bit more alacrity than Washingtonians are used to.

Here’s the cascade of ifs that could put the Evergreen State under a national spotlight.

Say Republicans have run the boards, but need one more victory to secure control of the Senate. (The scenario assumes a clean result in Alaska tonight, another bundle of ifs.)

Say that the Murray-Rossi race is too close to call tonight. Most of Washington’s counties, including King County, the most populous, will post only one tally tonight. Afterwards, as ballots trickle in, tallies will be reported daily.

Say no clear trend emerges as the results dribble out day by day. First Rossi is in the lead, then Murray, then Rossi again.

At last, the counting ends. But the difference between Murray and Rossi is fewer than 2,000 votes and less than one half of 1 percent of votes cast statewide, triggering a machine recount. If the difference is fewer than 1,000 votes and less than one-fourth of 1 percent of votes cast, a hand recount is triggered.

Multiple recounts, litigation, and recriminations follow. Histrionic lawyers and bloviating cable pundits rev up their engines. Congress suffers an institutional myocardial infarction. Some of the more excitable new Tea Party congressmen introduce legislation to cede Washington State to Canada, or better yet, Zimbabwe.

Well, things shouldn’t get that extreme.

Still, there is a degree of jitters today, because Washington has seen an election freak show before. The 2004 gubernatorial election, when Rossi was the GOP candidate, went through three recounts and litigation before a court ruling cemented Christine Gregoire’s 133-vote win over Rossi that year.

This year, both parties have dragooned squadrons of lawyers to prepare for any recount, but if fortune is smiling on Washington and its 49 brethren, the state’s voters will turn in a clear verdict before the clock strikes 12 tonight.

Posted at 5:37pm