Timothy Borders may already be Washington's most famous election observer. His minimum-wage job watching ballots be counted has led to having the Republican lawsuit over the governor's election named after him.

It won't rise to the level of Roe in Roe v. Wade or the Brown of Brown v. Board of Education. But no matter what happens in this case, attorneys and academics will be arguing about "Borders" for years to come.

The case has a longer official title; it's Borders and seven other petitioners versus the secretary of state, 39 counties and their election directors as respondents. The Democratic and Libertarian parties have intervened in the case.

But the case is known by the name of the 29-year-old who was chosen by Republicans as their lead plaintiff. He's a conservative living in Seattle's University District, looking for a job that would use his new economics degree. He's a quiet man to have lent his name to such a contentious issue.

"I'm thrilled that I'm part of this history and I'm honored, too, that I was selected," Borders said. "But I'm just one small part in this thing."

Hesitant to agree to an interview, he was cautious not to say anything he thought could hurt the Republican case.

"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," he said.

For weeks he worked in various King County election facilities, watching the initial count and two recounts of votes cast in the governor's race between Democrat Christine Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi.

The law allows political parties to have observers in polling places and election headquarters to watch all voting and ballot counting. They are paid by the county.

"The whole process is open and transparent," said Bobbie Egan, spokeswoman for King County elections.

Borders has been an official Republican observer in eight elections since 2002. Before November's election he served on the county's mobile voter-registration bus. On Election Day he watched at the polls, and that night he moved downtown to stand in the garage of the King County Administration Building and watch poll workers deliver ballots.

During the count and recounts he watched from various vantage points as election workers sorted, counted and tried to determine voter intent on unclear ballots.

"He's just became really, really familiar with the election process down in King County," said Dan Brady, the Republicans' chief election observer. "He has probably seen more than any other person on our team."

David Boerner, a law professor at Seattle University, said that sometimes lawyers will look for someone prominent to lend their name to a case. Other times, it's happenstance.

"Sometimes people end up in history who otherwise are not public officials," he said.

Republican attorneys said they could not comment on how Borders was selected as the lead petitioner because of attorney-client privilege.

Brady said he himself might have been the lead petitioner. Or it could have been one of the Republicans whose names appear on the lawsuit below Borders' name. But, Brady said, "Tim's doing this as a citizen ... and can speak to personally experiencing as much of this as anyone."

Republicans filed an affidavit from Borders outlining what he saw.

"Based upon my observation of the King County Elections Department in the November 2, 2004, general election, I have no confidence that Christine Gregoire was the winner of the gubernatorial race," he said in an affidavit filed in the case Jan. 15.

Borders said King County officials did not grant adequate access to observers. He also detailed conversations he had with King County Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens during the counts, and questioned the security of ballots.

He said he told Huennekens that he was sure he could easily break into a locked cage where ballots were stored.

And Huennekens' response, according to Borders' affidavit? "If it happens, we'll know it was you."

Borders said he did not witness anything that made him suspect election workers of wrongdoing. But he says the system has enough holes that it is far too easy for individual voters to commit fraud; for example, to vote twice or for a felon to vote.

He said his time on the King County mobile voter-registration drive convinced him the county spends too much time and money trying to register new voters and not enough checking to see if those already registered did so legally.

Borders discovered the Republican Party as a high-school student, about the same time he did his first election work.

Growing up on the Kistap Peninsula, Borders helped prepare ballots for counting.

"My job was to remove hanging chads," he said. His boss was Dean Logan, now King County's elections director.

Borders didn't grow up around politics. His parents and stepparents have a mix of political leanings.

As part of an assignment in an 11th-grade American history class, Borders read the state Democratic and Republican party platforms.

"I read through them very carefully and decided I stacked up more with the Republicans," he said.

He said he was moved most by the parties' positions on abortion; Democrats supported legal abortion and Republicans opposed it.

Borders remains a committed Republican. He doesn't want a career in politics. He'd like to find a job in economics and has been particularly interested in cost-benefit analysis.

It's that sort of analytical eye that he used to watch the election process, which he says is clearly flawed.

"It seems to me we require perfection in the process for the system to work properly and I haven't seen that," he said.

David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com -