All the pundits were wrong. Washington is the Florida of 2004. Sound Politics: Full state hand job here we come!

If hand counts are more accurate than machine counts, then why aren't hand counts used in the first place? Why have machine readable ballots at all? The answer, of course, is that hand recounts aren't more accurate. They introduce errors, and opportunities for fraud.

This fiasco now comes down to litigation--the Democrats will try to get rejected ballots reinstated--and who has the most and best qualified observers during the recount process.

Update: Here's a story from the Seattle Times that has a little more detail.

I don't know, but I'm willing to bet, that many of the election officials that the Democrats are calling incompetent in their lawsuit are themselves Democrats, as was the case in Florida in 2000. What a mess.