(WA state) Protesters gather at Rossi offices on both sides of recount

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BELLEVUE, Wash. (AP) — More than 100 people gathered Sunday outside Republican Dino Rossi's campaign headquarters to protest on both sides of the highly contentious recount of the governor's race.

The Washington state Supreme Court is prepared this week to consider a Pierce County judge's ruling Friday that granted a state Republican Party request to block King County from counting hundreds of recently discovered ballots. King County officials and Democrats had wanted to include 723 newfound ballots in the hand recount, saying they are valid ballots that were mistakenly rejected because of county workers' errors.

However, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend said it was simply too late for counties to reconsider ballots from the November election, even if such ballots were erroneously rejected by election workers. Rossi, a former state senator, won the Nov. 2 election over attorney general Gregoire by 261 votes in the first count and by 42 after a machine recount of the 2.9 million ballots. Hand recount results by Friday night, with every county but King reporting, showed he gained eight votes for an overall lead of 50.
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