By Scott HillisSEATTLE (Reuters) - Washington state on Monday began recounting votes in the last undecided U.S. Senate race, which would split the chamber evenly for the first time in at least 100 years if Democrat Maria Cantwell holds her lead.
Cantwell leads Republican incumbent Slade Gorton by 1,953 votes, out of more than 2.46 million cast, according to official data on the state's election Web site.
A Cantwell victory would split the 100-member Senate evenly between the Democrats and Republicans, but Republicans will retain control of the chamber regardless of the outcome.
At just 0.07 percent of the ballots cast, Cantwell's margin of victory is well under the 0.2-percent threshold for triggering an automatic recount.
``We ordered the recount and so we're underway,'' state Elections Director Gary McIntosh told Reuters. ``I think we should be done Thursday. We may have some dribble over into Friday, but we'll see.''
Most of Washington's 39 counties would finish recounts within one or two days while larger counties, such as Seattle's King County, would need up to three or four days, McIntosh said.
King County and Pierce County -- two of the state's largest -- began their recounts this on Monday while others are scheduled to begin as late as Thursday.
``It's up to the counties when they begin. Some of them require, I would imagine, more preparatory work,'' McIntosh said.
Most of the smaller counties will take less than a day to complete the recount. The results will be folded into a final tally to be announced on Dec. 7, after which candidates can request -- and pay for -- another recount, McIntosh said.
NECK AND NECK SINCE ELECTION NIGHT
The race has been neck-and-neck since election night, when some media outlets declared victory for Cantwell based on early returns. But Gorton, seeking a fourth term, grabbed the lead as votes came in from strongholds in conservative rural areas.
Cantwell, an executive at RealNetworks Inc. (RNWK.O) who funded her campaign almost entirely with her holdings in the software company, finally pushed past Gorton again last week after Democratic-dominated King County reported the last of its absentee ballots.
``I was cautiously optimistic, now I'm cautiously pessimistic about the outcome,'' Gorton said in a statement last week before the Thanksgiving Day holiday.
Neither side has said it would seek further recounts or raise legal challenges to the results, as in Florida, where a flurry of lawsuits by Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush have left the outcome of the presidential contest up in the air.
``We have not heard of anything at this point that would cast a cloud over the results,'' McIntosh said.
OREGON REPORTS FINAL RESULTS
Meanwhile, Oregon's 36 counties were reporting their final results to state election officials for a Monday deadline.
Unofficial results from the state's first all-mail election put Gore ahead by 6,400 votes, well above the 2,800-vote margin that would trigger an automatic recount.
Although the state election office has up to 10 days to certify the results, it planned to declare a presidential winner on Wednesday, an office spokeswoman said.
The winner will take home Oregon's seven electoral votes, not enough to make either man president.
Bush campaign workers were still checking into what they said were more than 4,000 incidents where voters had registered in two counties, possibly leading to double voting, campaign spokeswoman Leslie Goodman said.
The campaign has said it may challenge the Oregon results if there is evidence of double voting, and Goodman said they were ``absolutely'' keeping their options open.
