UPDATE 4:58 p.m. Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray slightly widened her lead over Republican challenger Dino Rossi as counties statewide counted about 143,000 more ballots this afternoon.
In King County, which counted 50,716 ballots, Murray's lead grew from 88,751 votes to 105,639. That gives her a lead of 62.6 percent to 37.4 percent -- a spread that widened slightly with the new votes. Based on King County's estimated voter turnout of 68 percent, there are may be 300,000 or more ballots still to count here.
The trend that bodes poorly for Rossi. He took 40 percent of the King County vote in his 2004 virtual tie with Gov. Chris Gregoire.
With results still trickling in, Rossi picked up a net gain of 3,262 votes out of Spokane County today, which counted an additional 23,218 ballots. That county, which Rossi is leading 56.4 to 43.6 percent, has about 80,000 more ballots to still to count.
In Pierce County, Rossi continued to lead Murray slightly. With about 20,000 more ballots counted today, Rossi led Murray by 1,920 votes out of 195,390 counted.
Snohomish County expects to release a count of about 15,000 votes later this evening. Murray is leading slightly there. We'll update as new numbers come in, and as we reach the campaigns for comment.
Statewide, Murray now leads 50.8 percent to Rossi's 49.2.
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