If anything has been proven in the Governor’s race turned Gregoire/Rossi should concede political cat fight, it must be that our voting process doesn’t work as well as it should. As the recounts are recounted and lawsuits wait in the wings, the real loser here is the voting public. Republican or Democrat, the race for the top seat in Washington has raised serious questions as to whether or not your vote actually counts. And seeing that our ability to elect who we please is in the balance — a basic premise of our Democracy — someone better have some excellent answers.

Here in Kitsap County, our auditor recently brought up the idea of all-vote-by-mail elections. The Legislature is also looking into the concept next session (hopefully we’ll have a governor by then). While vote-by-mail has its positives, it has yet to be fully embraced by the public. Roughly one quarter of county voters still cast their ballots at the polls.

While the new voting machines needed to adequately continue polling sites would require a huge expenditure by the county, state officials will likely make the call one way or the other.

We hope when they do, financial constraints aren’t even considered. Can we really put a dollar figure on what each and every eligible vote is worth? Hopefully, in the county and in the state, it will never come to that.

The voters truly deserve better. We deserve a better apology than the one we’ve received so far, and most of all, the voters deserve piece of mind — no matter the expense or the politics involved.