On Wednesday the spotlight turned to King County, where as many as 595 uncounted votes may be added to the recount. On Tuesday night, an election official said 22 more ballots had been found in addition to the previous 573.

Republican Dino Rossi won the Nov. 2 election over Democrat Christine O. Gregoire by 261 votes in the first count and by 42 after a machine recount. As of late Tuesday he had gained 64 votes in the hand recount for a margin of 106.

Uncounted ballots in King County, the most populous in the state and a Democratic stronghold, could reverse the outcome.

Rossi said Tuesday the newly discovered ballots should be thoroughly investigated.

"We believe if you do a fair and honest recount, we win," he said.

"It's just too much of a coincidence. They just keep coming up with votes, and it has never benefited me," Rossi said. "We're not going to take anything lying down, I'll guarantee you that."

Gregoire said the late discovery showed the system is working.

"The whole purpose of the recount was to find mistakes and correct them," Gregoire said. "Thank God King County found this mistake now instead of two weeks from now."

She repeated her belief that the race for governor is a "virtual tie," adding that she's cautiously optimistic she can win.

"I don't think anyone can predict the outcome of the race," Gregoire said. "I put my fate in the hands of the voters."

The hand recount is expected to take until at least Dec. 22 to complete. The inauguration for governor is scheduled for Jan. 12.

The three-member King County canvassing board was scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon to consider the 595 disputed ballots, which were put in a "reject" pile after the election because they bore signatures which failed to match the signatures on file.

Election officials said they discovered Sunday that the signatures had not been scanned into in the county's computer system. On Tuesday election workers retrieved the first 573 ballots and began checking signatures against the original paper records.

County Elections Director Dean Logan said he believes most of the 573 ballots belong to valid, registered voters, and the canvassing board is expected to include all validated ballots in the hand recount.

Then came word of another 22 ballots - 20 absentee and two provisional - found in several polling places in the side bins of plastic base units in which polling machines sit, said Bill Huennekens, county election superintendent. All ballots are supposed to be logged on Election Night and returned in a sealed bag to election headquarters, but it didn't happen with these, he said.

They were discovered in the process of picking up the black base units from the county's 540 polling places and came to Logan's attention Monday, Huennekens said. Not all were found at the same polling place.

"King County's becoming a massive joke, but it's not funny," state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance said. Republicans will fight to prevent at least the last 22 ballots from being counted because they were not postmarked and had been left unsecured.

"My response is: that's a decision for the canvassing board," Huennekens said.

The Supreme Court ruling did not affect the King County ballots. State law gives local canvassing boards the power to recanvass ballots if they find there's a discrepancy in the vote count.

The Democrats' lawsuit sought to force county canvassing boards to reconsider all rejected ballots, including those invalidated because of voter errors, and the high court said no.

"This court cannot order the Secretary (of State) to establish standards for the recanvassing of ballots previously rejected in this election," Chief Justice Gerry Alexander wrote.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, said the King County canvassing board should make a thorough check of what happened with the ballots.

"Let's face it, there are going to be people very suspicious about these circumstances," Reed said. "It is imperative we come out of this process with people having trust and confidence in the system."