The Washington state gubernatorial election looks dirtier and dirtier:

...state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance said yesterday that hundreds of unverified provisional ballots may have been wrongly counted in King County in the Nov. 2 election.

Vance called it a "bombshell" in the Republicans' case for invalidating Democratic Gov.—elect Christine Gregoire's 129—vote victory over Republican Dino Rossi in a second recount of 2.9 million votes cast, and added, "There may be many smoking guns."

Witnesses have testified that provisional voters, including people who just showed up at polling places  with no evidence that they had registered to vote, were allow to stick their ballots into ballot boxes, instead of putting them aside for further investigation, in large numbers.

In addition, large scale discrepancies exist between the number of people registered and the actual number of votes cast, lending some support to the idea that phony votes were tabulated.

It is time for a do—over.

Hat tip: Suzanne Olson

Thomas Lifson