One of the most fascinating yet sobering political stories of the year is the Washington State governor’s contest. Quick recap: After Republican Dino Rossi beat Democrat Christine Gregoire in November by 261 votes in the first count and 42 votes in a machine recount, Gregoire won a manual recount by 129 votes and declared victory on Dec. 23. Numerous reports of voting and vote counting irregularities have been surfacing almost daily, mostly from Seattle’s King County. Dozens of felon voters, deceased voters and double voters have been found. King County admits that hundreds of unverified provisional ballots were irretrievably commingled with proper polling place ballots and added to the total vote. County election workers also unlawfully “enhanced” thousands of optical scan ballots to clarify what they interpreted to be the voter’s intent. Thousands more ballots were counted around the state than there are voters who signed in at the polling places. Gregoire’s election was certified by a party-line vote in the state legislature and she was inaugurated on Jan. 12. Opinion polls show a large majority of state residents believe that Gregoire was not legitimately elected and want to hold a revote. Republicans filed suit in court to set aside the election, asking the court to order a revote. Democrats want to have the suit dismissed and to settle the controversy in the Democrat-controlled legislature. The legal and political battles for a clean election and a legitimate governor will continue in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, to catch up on the background, see the comprehensive timeline complied by Brian Crouch, arranged by month: November, December, January.