A federal judge yesterday denied a request by the state Republican Party to stop the King County recount of votes in the tightly contested race for governor between Dino Rossi and Christine Gregoire. Despite the judge's ruling, Republicans stepped up their attacks on how election workers in the heavily Democratic county were handling ballots. Gregoire, a Democrat, won King County with 57 percent of the approximately 898,000 votes cast, but she trailed Republican Rossi by 261 votes statewide. The small margin triggered an automatic machine recount. Chris Vance, head of the state Republican Party, accused King County election officials of...