NPI reports:
Chris Gregoire will be inaugurated as Washington's next governor tomorrow (Wednesday). The Washington State Legislature voted to certify the election after a Republican motion to postpone certification failed.
The vote to delay failed on a 65-80 vote, with 80 members of the 147-member Legislature opposing the action.
A Chelan County court will hear arguments in the lawsuit contesting the election filed by Rossi last week this Friday in Wenatchee.
The Republicans' main charges are that dead people voted in the election (a charge the Seattle P-I has spent way too much time covering), that felons voted (another dubious charge) and that some voters cast multiple ballots (more likely by accident than intentionally). But the main allegation here is that an unknown number, (perhaps hundreds) of provisional ballots were improperly fed into voting machines on Election Day.
Republicans, however, despite all their claims, do have to prove that fraud was committed, and that it was committed in favor of Gregoire. That's going to be a hard thing to prove. Republicans instead are going to try and say that there is just too much uncertainty and so the election should just be thrown out.
A Democratic attorney:
An attorney for the Democrats said she doesn't think Republicans will find any strong evidence for an election contest.
"Suspicion is not proof," said Jenny Durkan, a Gregoire confidant representing the state Democratic Party. She is not worried about a judge throwing out the mishandled provisional ballots.
"There is a strong presumption in law that you don't throw out votes just because someone made a clerical mistake," she said. "There's not even a 50-50 chance a court would rule with Republicans to set aside this election."
Earlier this morning (Wednesday), about 1,000 Rossi supporters rallied outside the Capitol chanting "re-vote!" About 200 Democrats gathered in a counter-demonstration, calling Rossi a "sore loser."
NPI Official Blog