SEATTLE -- To King County Council Chairman Larry Phillips, the question of whether to reconsider rejected ballots in the election for Washington governor is more than academic.

Phillips was checking the names of constituents whose votes had been rejected and discovered his own name on the list.

Phillips says he thought he did everything right when he voted. "If it can happen to the King County Council chairman, it can happen to anyone else," he said. Officials say Phillips' absentee ballot apparently was yanked for lack of a signature on file with the county elections office.

Rejected ballots could loom large in the manual recount of ballots. An initial tally showed republican Dino Rossi defeating democrat Christine Gregoire by 261 votes, and a machine recount cut his margin of victory to 42 votes.

The state Supreme Court is hearing a Democratic Party move to order that rejected ballots be reconsidered by county canvassing boards. Republicans are resisting the move, which state election officials say could delay the recount into next year.

Without reconsideration of rejected ballots, officials have said the hand recount should be done by Christmas