Cantwell carried only five of the 39 counties, but Gorton's big lead in the less populous areas could not overcome his challenger's enormous advantage in Seattle.
With all of the state's counties reporting, Cantwell led by 1,953 votes –
a margin of less than 1/10 of 1 percent. A machine recount of the 2.5
million ballots is automatic under state law when an election is so close.
State officials said the recount will begin early next week and should be
finished in a few days.
In a brief appearance Wednesday night at her campaign headquarters,
Cantwell, 42, predicted the recount would confirm her election. But she
added, "We're not popping the champagne corks quite yet."
Gorton, 72, called himself "cautiously pessimistic about the outcome." In
a statement, he added, "This election has had a number of surprising twists
and turns and with that, I expect to wait for the end of the recount to make
another statement."
If Cantwell does win, it would evenly split the Senate for the first time
since 1881 and raise the number of women in the upper chamber to 13,
including two from Washington.
Fox News reported that Cantwell's victory could draw Senate Democrats into a tie with the Republicans, leading her party to demand a shared power arrangement, including committee chairmanships.
If Sen. Joseph Lieberman is handed the vice presidency by the courts in the contested presidential election, Connecticut's Republican governor would likely appoint a Republican to his vacated seat, putting the GOP back into a 51-49 advantage.
But if President-elect Bush keeps the White House and Dick Cheney takes office as vice president, Cheney would break ties for the Republicans as the presiding officer of the Senate, and Republicans would still maintain nominal control of the Senate, even though there would be a 50-50 tie.
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