Its the law
Larry,
You may hyperventilate till the cows come home about Washington State's elections laws, but the law is the law...with a margin less than 2,000 votes there is an automatic mechanical recount. If after that, the margin is still that close, the candidates can request a third hand recount, provided they put up the money to pay for the cost of conducting it. That's exactly what happened here. That's the law.
In this case, what's clearly apparent is that a number of eligible ballots that should have been counted didn't get counted. The whole purpose of a recount is to get them counted. That's what happened in Washington State. Its the law and its the right thing to do.
Donald