Watergate Wrangling

The pro-Monument slate won by a slim majority. In addition, according to documents from residents, 35,040 shares, or 50.3 percent, voted in favor of selling the underground property to Monument, while 34,548 shares, or 49.7 percent, were opposed.

Bruce B. Drury, a partner at the Bethesda-based accounting firm Watkins, Meegan, Drury & Co., audited the vote. According to a memo written by Kioumars Aghazadeh, the general manager of Watergate East, Drury was soon bombarded with phone calls from residents, wanting to know how their neighbors had voted. The auditor told Aghazadeh that "as we speak, the paper proxies and votes are being shredded," according to the memo. Both sides agree that the ballots were shredded, but Wolf and Sheehan said they did not order it.

Drury declined to comment on the shredding.

"It's a mess," said Olender, who lives in a co-op once owned by Nixon fundraiser Maurice H. Stans. "People are disgusted with it."

Diedrich and his supporters immediately began collecting signatures from residents to get the board to hold another vote. He got a receptionist to put letters he wrote into residents' mailboxes. He hung out in the lobby to corner people as they returned from work. He got enough signatures to schedule a new vote for tomorrow. Sheehan said that the vote is only advisory and that the ultimate decision will rest with the board, while opponents of the deal dispute that.

To make sure there are no accusations of ballot fraud this time, the board is paying the League of Women Voters $1,500 to $2,000 to monitor the elections, according to Sheehan.

Darby said he expects to start construction early next year and complete the conversion by 2006.

It's "a done deal," he said.

Not so fast, Diedrich said. "This June 9th vote counts. We want to stop this."