For the second time in four years, the tabulation in a major Washington state election battle has dragged on for weeks.

In the 2000 U.S. Senate race, it took 24 days to declare Maria Cantwell the winner over Slade Gorton. A similar amount of time will pass before we know who the next governor will be.

Part of the delay is due to the closeness of those races and the need for recounts. But another part has to do with Washington state’s insistence on being different from every other state but Alaska when it comes to counting mail-in ballots.

Critics of mail-in balloting will tell you that allowing such liberal use of absentee voting in the first place is the root of the problem, but the system is highly popular and is here to stay. About 60 percent of voters choose to spend 37 cents to cast a ballot by mail.

However, that doesn’t mean the state can’t change the due date on mail-in ballots. Currently, ballots are counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. Most other states will not count ballots that are received after then.

If Washington state had that system, it would speed up the tabulation. We think voters deserve to know the results as soon as possible. Plus, officeholders, especially new ones, need time to make the transition.

State Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, is proposing such a change, and she has the support of Secretary of State Sam Reed. But Reed would like to couple that move with a change in the primary election date, because that count can also go on for days.

Perhaps. But we would rather make one move at a time. The “Top Two” Primary comes into play next year, and nobody can say for certain what its impact will be. Let’s wait until the state experiences one of those elections before making more changes.

State Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, says she would not be in favor of a stricter due date on ballots, because a certain number of votes would not be counted. That’s true, but then we’re stuck with these lengthy waits for results.

Others point out that if we hired more elections staffers that would speed the process. That’s true, but how would we pay for that?

Still others point out that such a change would give mail-in voters less time to evaluate candidates. Also true, but such voters have the option of dropping off their ballots at a polling place if they want to make their decisions in the last few days.

Besides, can’t we allow for some measure of personal responsibility in seeing that ballots arrive on Election Day?

All of these perceived weaknesses aren’t even considered in most other states, and their voters aren’t clamoring about the unfairness of it all. Quite the opposite: They’re puzzled (and, in some cases, amused) that it takes us so long to determine winners.

It shouldn’t. Let’s change that due date.