A federal judge on Sunday denied the state

Republican Party's bid to force King County to stop counting some

ballots in the recount of the governor's race.

In a conference call with lawyers, U.S. District Judge Marsha

Pechman denied the GOP's request for a temporary restraining order

barring the hand-counting of ballots machines reject because they

can't be read electronically.

"It was a good decision," state Democratic Party Chairman Paul

Berendt said. "It's good for voters because it's consistent with

the standard we would like to see -- that every vote be counted."

Republicans sued Secretary of State Sam Reed and the King County

Division of Elections on Saturday, arguing that ballots the

machines can't count should be excluded from the recount because

they have to be checked by hand -- a process that's not being used

in other counties where punch card ballots were used instead of

optical scanners.