After reportedly pulling ahead by 8 votes in the Washington Governor's race, it appears as though Christine Gregoire's chances at pulling off a victory are increasing rapidly. A new ruling by the State Supreme Court has found that the recently found ballots in King County should indeed be counted. The AP's Rebecca Cook has the story:

Washington state's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that more than 700 belatedly discovered ballots from Seattle's King County should be counted in the extraordinarily close governor's race — potentially enough to tip the balance in favor of Democrat Christine Gregoire.

King County is a Democratic stronghold, the biggest county in the state and the last to report results from the statewide hand recount that began Dec. 8.

The ruling was a boost to the Democrats, who even before the decision were claiming victory, saying their own analysis showed that even without the belated ballots, Gregoire had erased Republican Dino Rossi's slim lead and won the race by just eight votes out of 2.9 million cast.

Washington's statehouse should stay in Democrats hands now, and that's good news.