The judge presiding over the election challenge in Washington State will issue a ruling this coming Monday, the Seattle Times reports. (Hat tip: reader Anthony J.)

According to the Times, Republicans have been arguing “that illegal votes cast in any given precinct should be deducted from each candidate’s total by the same proportion as the overall vote for each candidate in that precinct.” This technique, referred to as proportional deduction, probably understates the number of illegal votes for Christine Gregoire, because felons probably voted in favor of Gregoire in both Gregoire-leaning and Rossi-leaning districts.

Last week, the Times reported that King County still can’t say how many people voted last fall or who voted. There are “nearly 4,000 discrepancies between the number of votes counted and earlier tallies of ballots or people recorded as voting at the polls.”

Stefan Sharansky of Sound Politics predicts that the judge will set aside the election, presumably leading to a re-vote.

In related news, two King County residents pleaded guilty to voting twice last fall.

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