More Votes Than Voters

The tighter than tight race for Governor in Washington is a real debacle. The first ballot count showed Republican Dino Rossi winning by 261 votes, a subsequent machine recount had Rossi winning by 42. The last recount conducted by hand, ended with the Democrat, Christine Gregoire winning by 129 votes.


Now we learn the number of ballots counted in King County outnumbered the list of voters who voted by 3,539. Also, an unknown number of provisional voters, some of whom may not even have been registered to vote, improperly put their ballots directly into vote-counting machines at polling places. This according to King County's elections superintendent.


No election is ever perfect, but when there are more ballots cast than voters and the difference is greater than the margin of victory – it’s a fiasco. Washington State law limits the number of recounts to three – so maybe a revote is in order.