Bring Out Your Dead

Just when it seemed like things in our Washington state gubernatorial race might start settling down, it looks like they're about to get even more crazy. On Friday the Seattle PI ran an article exposing the fact that at least 8 people who died well before the November election ended up being credited with voting. The Seattle Times then countered with their own article that indicated that as many as 24 dead voters may have risen from their grave to do their civic duty. Apparently these kinds of things aren't uncommon, but when you have an election that comes down to a mere 129 votes they start to become a lot more interesting.

On Saturday, Dino Rossi built on this news and officially filed suit to request that the state throw out the election results and hold a new election.

"'The number of illegal votes counted, and the number of valid votes improperly rejected in this election, are so great as to render the true result of the election uncertain and likely unknowable,' the lawsuit claimed."

Any statistician would tell you that a 129 vote difference in an election of this size is a statistical tie. So does it make sense to throw things out and do it again? Maybe, but the Republicans certainly didn't think so when it was their candidate in the lead.

For now Christine Gregoire is still slated to be sworn in as the next governor on Wednesday. Who knows what kind of fun stories will come out between now and then?