In certifying the 2012 election results yesterday, Secretary of State Sam Reed kvelled about Washington State's voter turnout, which at 81.25 percent may be "possibly the best in the country this year."

Yeah, possibly. Despite all the whining over our slow results, a dozen or so other states have yet to certify, so not all the data is in. And even then, Washington may only best the nation in turnout as a percentage of registered voters. As a percentage of eligible voters, Washington's 65.05 percent turnout rate is still very good, but nothing extraordinary. According to the latest tally from the United States Election Project at George Mason University, five other states have already reported higher turnout as a percentage of eligible voters than Washington, including both Iowa and New Hampshire, both at over 70 percent.

So yeah, Washington is doing a great job turning out voters. But we still need to do a better job registering them if we truly want to lead the nation in voter participation.