The real point is - WA state has got to make some kind of move to change their election laws. It can be done if you have a good organization to do it.
So .. the point isn't the location of the voting problems .. but what laws govern the voting problems.
However .. a reasonable dispute - such as if the margin of winning is 500 votes or less - then it becomes the state's obligation to pay for the machine recount. I believe the law already states that the hand recount is paid for by the party asking for the hand recount and the dems did that. Then that only leaves a rule change for who pays for a revote. If there was malfeasance in the original vote - then rules need to be made as to who is responsible for the revote - the party that was harmed - or the party which committed the malfeasance. That's going to be a tough decision.
Well,
The Chronicle (of Chehalis, WA) said this: WHO PAYS? State law requires that the party, in this case the Democrats, that requests a hand recount must conditionally pay for it. The condition is that if the recount reverses the result — in this instance shows Gregoire won instead of Rossi, then the state must pay because theoretically it messed up in the first two counts. The result would be that we, the taxpayers, must reimburse the Democrats the $1 million or so it cost for the recount. We have a suggestion: Because a reversal that gives Gregoire the election will almost certainly be a result of King County election officials’ incompetence, make King County and its taxpayers reimburse the Democrats, not us taxpayers in the rest of the state.
SOURCE I tend to agree. The incompetence however, is also in Pierce County, too. And others. Try to check out
http://josef-a-k.blogspot.com/2005/01/total-mockery-part-02.html when you can.