King County counted about 115,000 more ballots today, an addition of votes from the state’s most-liberal county (OK, next to San Juan) that gave R-71 a big bump. That’s the expansion of same-gender partnership rights approved by the Legislature and placed on the ballot by conservative opponents of the expansion.

How big a boost? A two percent lead at the end of the day yesterday increased to a four percent lead with these votes.

The Approve total now has 51.8 percent of the vote, the Reject side had 48.2 percent. The hard numbers are 555,782 to 516,834.

Some large counties where the measure isn’t doing as well are expected to count later today. They are Pierce, Spokane, Clark and Yakima. They might be countered with votes for Approve counties, Snohomish and Thurston.