Every single vote counts, and there are few better ways to prove that than to take a look at the Washington state gubernatorial election of 2004, which came down to a margin of 133 votes.
Our previous governor, Democrat Gary Locke, had decided not to seek re-election, so the governor's chair was an open seat. Former State Senator and lying, cocky Republican jerk Dino Rossi ran against Democratic Attorney General Christine Gregoire.
The race was tight, and both sides engaged in a feverish GOTV effort. Washington state was, at the time, largely vote-by-mail, though a few counties, including the two with the largest number of voters, gave people the choice of whether to vote at a polling place or by mail-in ballot. As our state allows ballots to be postmarked or dropped off as late as the post offices close on election day, the results of close elections are often not known for a couple of weeks, though unofficial totals are posted daily on the web. As a result, the election wasn't certified until November 17, when it was called for Dino Rossi by a margin of 261 votes. In a race this close, state law provides for an automatic machine recount, and following that recount, Rossi's margin had tightened to 42 votes.
State law permits a candidate to call for a second recount, which can be either a machine recount or a manual one, but the candidate requesting the second recount has to pay for it. If the result of this recount overturns the election, the candidate requesting the recount is reimbursed.
Three weeks or so went by. By this time, we were into December, and we still didn't know who our governor was. Rossi, sure that he was the winner, began moving into the governor's mansion.
Naturally, every step of the way was documented on Daily Kos. A great deal of fundraising by our state Democratic Party took place here, and Kossacks gave generously to support the hand recount that had been chosen, for which the party paid well over $700,000 to recount 3 million ballots. It was this post-election reporting that finally convinced me to stop lurking and get an account here.
The chair of the King County Council was looking over a list of absentee voters whose ballots hadn't been counted due to signature irregularities, and was surprised to find his own name there. This led to 561 ballots from King County that had been rejected due to an administrative error being counted, along with other properly submitted absentee ballots from from at least five other counties. The Republican Party went to court for a restraining order to stop these newly-discovered ballots from being included in the manual recount, which was granted, but the state Democrats appealed to the state Supreme Court and had the injunction and restraining order overturned. When the hand recount was finally over just before Yule, the preliminary results gave Gregoire a 10 point lead. After determining a fair method for including ballots where the voter's intent was clear but the machine couldn't read them, which led to them being rejected, Gregoire's lead increased to 129 votes.
The Republicans demanded a re-vote, but state law does not permit that, so their only alternative was a lawsuit. After months of waiting and two weeks in court, the result was declared final in june 2005: Christine Gregoire, the Democrat, had won by 133 votes out of 3 million cast.
Don't think that one vote doesn't count. The margin of victory in that election was so slim, it was obvious to all Washingtonians that every single vote mattered. We have an open governor's seat again this year, because Governor Gregoire (a Kossack, by the way) is not seeking a third term. I'm supporting Democrat Jay Inslee, who is also a Kossack, and you bet I'm engaging in GOTV. This is predicted to be another very tight gubernatorial race, and every single vote matters.
You can sign up to help GOTV in swing states from wherever you are, and I hope you will. Or contact the Inslee campaign, and help us keep the governor's mansion blue.