For political junkies, the gubernatorial race has been a dream come true.

“I feel like Florida” in the 2000 presidential race, said Frauna Hoglund, who leads the Snohomish County Republicans. “There are no hanging chads, but there are a lot of interesting things going on.”

County Democratic Chairman Kent Hanson said he’s been fascinated by the seesaw battle between Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi.

“It sort of makes the election real,” he said. “Every vote really does count.”

Meanwhile, Snohomish County Auditor Bob Terwilliger has been gearing up for the recount.

Rossi pulled out a 261-vote victory late Wednesday after about 1,900 votes from Benton and Grays Harbor counties were added to the state total.

By law, hand counts are required if the final difference is less than 150 votes, and less than one-quarter of 1 percent. As votes trickled in from around the state Friday, the candidates remained in a virtual tie as far as the percentage difference between them.

“We were just rooting for 150 (votes) or more,” Terwilliger said.

The difference means that he and election officials around the state will be able to use machines for the recount. He plans to start the recount Monday morning and complete it on Tuesday. The election for the governor would be certified locally on Wednesday.

If a hand count had been required, the 96,231 votes cast in Snohomish County on electronic voting machines Nov. 2 would have had to be reduced to paper. There were 200,737 mail-in paper ballots counted in the election.

People hired for that purpose would have had to count all 296,968 ballots, Terwilliger said. Thirty teams of two had been planned for that eventuality, but it won’t be required now.

Under a hand-count scenario, Terwilliger anticipated certification as late as Nov. 30, and the teams working through part of the Thanksgiving weekend.

“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said, adding that extremely close or even tied elections happen occasionally in small jurisdictions. But state voters cast nearly 2.9 million ballots, “and this vote is essentially a tie.”

Ten new Snohomish County ballots, postmarked on or before Nov. 2, trickled in from overseas or arrived here from other counties on Wednesday, Terwilliger said. They were added to the mix.

By all indications, six of them went for Rossi and four for Gregoire. Two didn’t vote in the governor’s race.

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.