The Washington gubernatorial election trial opened yesterday with the Republicans’ opening statement emphasizing fraud by King County Elections officials and summarized by the quote “This election was stolen from the legal voters of this state by a bizarre combination of illegal voters and bumbling bureaucrats.” The Republicans only starting making allegations of outright “fraud” in recent weeks after King County officials admitted in pre-trial depositions that they falsified ballot accounting reports that were used for certifying the election. It’s unclear (though unlikely) that the trial judge will allow the Republicans to argue fraud in the formal sense. But it looks he’ll allow them to present the evidence that indicates fraud. In a major ruling this morning he denied a Democrat motion and allowed the Republicans to submit evidence that King County counted 875 more absentee ballots than there were absentee voter.