The doubts about the validity of Christine Gregoire’s victory in the recent manual recount continue, as the GOP wants to know why the list of voters in King County who cast valid ballots does not match the actual number of votes certified.

As has been the case since Election Day, much of the attention is focused on King County. Republicans are asking questions about why the county’s list of registered voters who cast valid ballots in the election shows about 3,500 fewer people than the total number of votes certified in the race.

They also continue to search for military voters who say their ballots either didn’t arrive overseas in time for the election or weren’t counted when the votes were returned home. Rossi appeared at a news conference with the parents of a Marine serving in Iraq who got his ballot the day after the election.

The GOP is considering pushing for a new election, if this large discrepancy can’t be explained.

The latest questions about King County came after the elections office released on Wednesday a list of all registered voters in the county, broken down by those who voted and those who didn’t. The Republican Party, among other groups, had requested the information as part of its investigation of voting irregularities.

Conservative blogger Stefan Sharkansky pointed out the discrepancy Wednesday, and by yesterday it was Topic A among Rossi backers and Republican Party officials.

Party Chairman Chris Vance said it could be the “smoking gun” needed to overturn the election.

The number of King County ballots counted in the final tally was 899,199 — 3,539 more than the number of participating voters reported in the county’s list.

County elections officials said they are examining the data to resolve the discrepancy. An updated voter list will be released by the end of next week, they said.

As usual, Sound Politics has provided excellent coverage of this whole fiasco.