Washingtonians, thanks as always to our legislators, have a chance of becoming a national joke on Election Day, Nov. 2.

Political observers say the U.S. Senate could be in the balance as Republicans are predicted to make significant gains. One race that’s looking fairly close is in this state, where veteran Democratic incumbent Patty Murray is facing a stiff challenge from Republican Dino Rossi.

If control of the Senate looks close, broadcasters on FOX, CNN, CSPAN and the networks will look west as the votes come in later than back east. California’s winner will be announced, and then Oregon’s, Hawaii’s and Alaska’s. And if one state can still make the difference in which party controls the Senate, the TV talking heads will go berserk, because Washington has the slowest and looniest vote-counting system in the nation.

The other states, sensibly enough, count their votes on election day. Washington counts some votes on election day, but the majority are still floating around somewhere in the U.S. Postal System. You see, ballots here have to be postmarked on Election Day, but they don’t have to be counted until the election is certified, which this year is Nov. 23. And even that date doesn’t mean the election is over.

Dino Rossi has some experience in this situation, having “lost” to Gov. Chris Gregoire in 2004 by 133 votes out of 2.8 million cast. The election wasn’t decided until June 6 of the following year when Rossi mercifully ended a court challenge based on voter fraud, lost ballots and other issues.

A similar situation could develop in 2010 considering how close the race is between Murray and Rossi. The entire country could end up laughing at us for weeks or months, as it takes us longer to count votes in 2010 than it did in 1889. On the bright side, such humiliation might be the only thing that will prompt the Legislature to require ballots be in the ballot box and not the mail box on election day. In this state, it’s hard to do anything that makes sense without a lot of prompting.