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  Republicans have been building a case over the past few weeks, gathering evidence of voting irregularities, including illegal provisional ballots and a handful of votes cast by dead people. They are pushing for a revote, an unprecedented step in a statewide election.

"There are so many improperly cast and counted ballots that this election is invalid," said Rossi, a real-estate millionaire and former state senator. "You cannot tell who won. The only way for us to get out of this problem is for us to have a revote."

Rossi won the initial tally by 261 votes and a machine recount by 42 votes, then lost a hand recount to Democrat Christine Gregoire by 129 votes out of 2.9 million ballots.

The party filed a lawsuit contesting the election in Chelan County, in north-central Washington. GOP attorney Harry Korrell said Republicans would not seek to block Gregoire's inauguration, scheduled for Wednesday.

Democrats said the state constitution won't allow a revote.

"No court will find this election should be set aside," said Democratic Party attorney Jenny A. Durkan. Even if illegal votes were cast, she said, "it would not change the outcome of the election."

'Absolutely Ludicrous'

Gregoire, the state's three-term attorney general, has called the idea of a revote "absolutely ludicrous."

On Friday, she acknowledged Rossi's right to contest the election, but flatly rejected his contention that enough errors have been shown to warrant a redo.

"I don't take any of this personally," she said at a news conference in Olympia. "I respect the right of others to file an action in the courts."

Republicans are not arguing any fraud or misconduct took place, only that too many mistakes were made for anyone to be certain who actually won.

"The number of votes cast questionably, illegally or mistakenly is vastly in excess of the 129-vote margin by which this election has been certified," former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton said at a news conference Rossi held at his campaign headquarters in this Seattle suburb.

Republicans highlighted a host of problems, including thousands more ballots than people credited with voting in several counties' records - more than 1,200 in heavily Democratic King County alone.

King County Elections Director Dean Logan and other county officials have said it's common for vote totals not to match up with their lists of voters who cast ballots.

Another problem in King County: Nearly 350 provisional ballots were fed directly into vote-counting machines before election staffers could verify whether they were valid, Logan said.

Republicans said they chose Chelan County to file the lawsuit because they didn't want to sue in any county where they were alleging serious problems had occurred. Democrats said picking a county where voters backed Rossi amounted to "judge shopping."

Any election challenge will certainly end up before the state Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Clerk C.J. Merritt said the court will wait until the filing period closes before deciding what to do with election challenges. The deadline is 10 days after the Legislature issues a certificate of election, which is expected to happen Tuesday.

Washington isn't the only state where election drama is unfolding. In North Carolina, a judge ordered a new statewide election for agriculture commissioner because of a voting machine error that wiped out 4,438 ballots in one county.

© 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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