I do believe that the Democrats are not acting as honestly as the Republicans in the election; however, I agree with the standard of proof and I know you're not a shill for the Dems.
There's an additional point here, though. Regardless of innocence or guilt, it is bad practice to include ballots that turn up later--after observers had the chance to confirm the process--with a broken chain of custody.
Now that, I can agree with. The calling of the rejected provisional voters and only talking to them if they voted for Gregoire is particularly shady. But not illegal.
King County's recent change of standards for tallying overvotes, on the other hand, does provide a good basis for legal challenge on equal protection grounds.
There's an additional point here, though. Regardless of innocence or guilt, it is bad practice to include ballots that turn up later--after observers had the chance to confirm the process--with a broken chain of custody.
As far as I know, the 500-something rejected absentees have been in an adequate chain of custody the whole time. The 22 recently found ballots are a different matter. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be counted or that they're fraudulent, but the standard of proof for eligibility should be much higher. Supposedly they were in the pockets of some voting machines; if those voting machines were in proper custody and if they can convincingly show how they were missed they should be let in. Both of those are pretty big ifs.
Not that it matters; Snohomish's disappointing returns mean that if the current trend continues Gregoire will win outright without even needing the absentees. There's still a shred of hope, though. I'm clinging to the fact that King County already performed a manual recount of sorts, by reviewing the ballots that the machines couldn't tabulate during the mandatory machine recount. There may be fewer possibilities for Gregoire than she hopes.