Why we recount

From the AP:

A statewide hand recount is under way across Washington state after Republican Dino Rossi came out ahead of Gregoire by just 42 votes out of 2.9 million cast.

and

Logan said election workers mistakenly rejected 561 absentee ballots because they thought signatures on the ballots did not match original voter registration records.

However, he said that the signatures simply were not on file in the county's computerized voter registration system and that original registration records should have been checked.

This kind of thing is why we need to do recounts when things look unusual. In this case, the recount will be done by hand, which should definitively settle things. It also smooths out problems before they can occur again.

It also points to the importance of a paper trail. In a typical touch screen environment, these votes would be lost forever.