Ukraine gets to revote. Why can't Washington state?

Monday, December 20, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST

If President Bush's margin of victory in Ohio had been 1,190 votes instead of 119,000 votes, it's a safe bet that state's 20 decisive electoral votes would still be locked in a bitter legal battle. In fact, the battle would likely resemble the one going on right now over who won Washington state's bizarrely close race for governor. The state is now concluding its third count of the 2.9 million ballots, and Republican Dino Rossi clings to a 50 vote lead over Democrat Christine Gregoire. King County, which includes liberal Seattle, is the only county left to report.

Amid all the wrangling over this election, almost all semblance of a fair system has been lost. It now looks like Washington's election will be decided by lawyers and a court, rather than by the voters. The result probably hinges on whether 723 King County absentee ballots that were rejected during the first two vote counts will be counted after all. A local judge has ruled that it is too late to inject the 723 ballots into the recount and that if they were valid votes they should have been counted in the first or second recounts. Democrats respond that the fault lies with King County clerks, who failed to take extra steps to verify the ballots, and not with the voters.

The state Supreme Court will in all likelihood settle the argument and thus determine who the winner is this coming week. Regardless of the outcome, there's now a growing number of people who believe the counting process in King County has been compromised. King County, after all, has a long history of incompetence in handling its elections and has now discovered "new" uncounted ballots nine times since Nov. 2--and there's still time for another surprise or two.