Errors surface in initial GOP results -- but McCain keeps lead

John McCain is still narrowly winning Saturday's Republican presidential caucuses, state GOP Chairman Luke Esser said late Monday.

The overall numbers shifted little in the latest count with 96 percent of precincts reporting, although Esser said party officials had to make adjustments to initial tallies because of incorrect reporting from Snohomish, Benton, Grant and Jefferson counties.

In those counties, local GOP officials reported the presidential preferences of all caucus attendees, instead of the preferences of only the delegates selected at the caucuses.

Esser's declaration Saturday night that Arizona Sen. McCain had won the precinct caucuses, based on reports from 87 percent of precincts statewide, infuriated the campaign of the announced runner-up, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee's campaign said Monday there should be a vote-by-vote recount of the caucus results because the decision to declare McCain the winner was premature and disenfranchised voters.

On Saturday night "it was clear to me that Senator McCain was the winner of the precinct caucuses. That hasn't changed," Esser said late Monday.

In a CNN interview on Monday Huckabee said he was "stunned" by the decision to announce McCain as the winner.

"That is not what we do in American elections. ... Maybe that's how they used to conduct it in the old Soviet Union, but you don't just throw people's votes out and say, 'Well, we're not going to bother counting them because we kind of think we know where this was going,' " Huckabee said.

A state GOP spokesman said Monday the party has every intention of counting all the votes.

Esser said that he'd be happy to do a recount, but all that would entail would be calling the county chairs and asking them to verify the numbers they've already reported.

"We're a conduit for information from the 39 counties ... I think there's a misconception that we have a bunch of ballots here at state party headquarters."

Esser said "I have no problem at all asking for a recount, but we haven't finished the count yet. First things first."

The state party chairman also said he hadn't heard whether the Huckabee campaign planned to further push its calls for a recount or legal action.

With 96 percent of results in, Esser said McCain had 3,191 precinct delegates (25.6 percent) to Mike Huckabee's 2,898 (23.3 percent) -- a difference of just 293.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul won 21 percent of Washington's precinct delegates, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who dropped out of the race this past week, got 15 percent, according to the latest numbers from the GOP.

Although Huckabee adviser Jim Pinkerton said Monday an attorney for the campaign was in the state to investigate concerns about the caucuses, national Chairman Ed Rollins seemed to soften his tone in a letter to Esser released Monday afternoon.

Rollins did write that he was "deeply disturbed" by Esser's "misinterpretation of incomplete data," but Rollins said "we look forward to the Washington State Republican Party's full and complete accounting of the results as well as a transparent and thorough examination of all procedures that might have contributed to this debacle."

"We appreciate your willingness to meet with our legal team and work with us to ensure that every Washington voter receives the opportunity to have his or her voice heard in this critical election year," the letter concluded.

The fracas points up both the admittedly amateurish nature of the caucuses and the desperation of Huckabee's long-shot bid to head off McCain's nomination.

Unlike ordinary elections -- or even presidential primaries, such as the upcoming state balloting Feb. 19 -- caucuses are not administered by government employees. They are unofficial affairs conducted by volunteers for the political parties, which the courts have ruled in other matters are private associations.

Although McCain enjoys a sizable lead nationwide in national convention delegates won in primaries and caucuses in numerous states so far, Huckabee has vowed to continue his push to win a majority of those delegates at the GOP nominating convention in September. An ordained Southern Baptist minister and strong social conservative, Huckabee has won several states, but has had trouble breaking through outside the South and agrarian Midwest. A win in Washington state would be a major boost to his campaign.

The Saturday precinct caucuses selected delegates to later county caucuses or legislative district conventions, which in turn will select delegates to the state party convention, from which 18 of the state's 40 delegates to the GOP national convention will be chosen. Most of the rest of the delegation will be chosen based on the Feb. 19 primary, with three slots going automatically to state party leaders.

State party tabulators determined the presidential preferences of the delegates selected Saturday based on which candidate's name each delegate wrote down when signing into the caucuses. But those entries are not binding.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama easily won his party's caucuses over Sen. Hillary Clinton, winning a majority in every county in the state.

Because of incorrect information from the Washington Democratic Party, a story on Page One Monday incorrectly listed Douglas County as backing Clinton.