I wasn't born a Republican, but I realized, as a Green Lake resident who campaigned for charter schools (I think poor children deserve the same opportunity to opt out of failing public schools that rich children have), that I'm considered an R around here. I post my conservative leanings at SoundPolitics.com (a conservative local politics blog I started, and which has since become the clearinghouse for revelations about the electoral flaws that led to Gregoire's "victory").

And as The Stranger's token Republican now, I've been asked to make the case that we should hold a new election to settle our disputed governor's race. Just so you know, I would have supported a revote in Florida in November 2000 too. Then, as now, many irregularities were reported--elderly Jews voting for Pat Buchanan in Florida, hundreds of unverified provisional ballots counted in King County today--that it seemed impossible to tell who really won.

When the apparent victory margin represents only a fraction of the errors and illegal votes, what's right is to fix the problems and give eligible voters a fair chance to express their will.

The Republican lawsuit to set aside the gubernatorial election points out myriad irregularities, including hundreds of votes that should never have been cast--votes from felons, double-voters, and non-citizens, and votes cast in the names of dead people.

The GOP also cites another problem that should be of particular concern in King County, because it probably reflects systemic problems that could affect future elections. The number of ballots counted by King County exceeds the number of identified voters by at least 1,800, 14 times Gregoire's purported margin of victory.

Officials initially shrugged off the discrepancy as an irrelevant number, citing a misleading explanation of canvassing procedures that the county was later forced to drop, thanks to information I reported on SoundPolitics.com. They continue to claim, though, that the numbers of ballots and voters were reconciled and documented in "precinct reconciliation reports." These reports are public records, but the county has never released them, even though many people, including the Secretary of State and King County Councilman David Irons have been asking to see them for weeks. I visited the Elections Office on March 6 to follow up my own written request for the documents. I'm still waiting.

Our governorship is too important to be decided by hundreds of voterless ballots, by tail-covering election bureaucrats, or by judges. Let's fix the problems and give the voters a fair chance to choose our governor.

editor@thestranger.com