RENTON — Dave. Sue. Patrick. Allen. Kevin. Jeralee. Jaime.
Gloved King County election officials softly read candidates’ names as they thumbed through ballots. The officials, some of whom canceled their vacations or rescheduled child care to be here, sat in pairs stacking and tallying ballots by hand Monday morning.
It’s the first statewide recount in a primary election since 1960, and the Secretary of State’s Office said this is the closest race in the history of Washington’s primary.
The state directed a hand recount after the final tally left the No. 2 and 3 candidates in the commissioner of public lands race separated by just 51 votes. King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove narrowly edged out GOP-endorsed Sue Kuehl Pederson by a thousandth of a percentage point.
King County will be responsible for recounting nearly one third (560,000) of the state’s 1.9 million ballots. Election officials here and across the state’s 39 counties will be looking for any changes in the result certified last week as they tally ballots one-by-one. Most counties have estimated needing between five days to a week to finish a recount.
The recount will determine who will face off against former Republican U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who secured her first-place finish with 22% of the vote. Both Kuehl Pederson and Upthegrove garnered 20.82% of the vote, with the rest being spread among four other Democratic candidates.
“If it helps with everything that you set aside, you are making your part of history and democracy here today,” Julie Wise, director of King County Elections, said Monday to a room full of elections staff.
Just after 9 a.m. runners rolled carts full of ballot boxes onto the floor, distributing one to each table.
Elections officials seated at tables in pairs jotted down the box number and other details and cut the plastic seals off the boxes. Then the rush began.
Each official read out the candidate’s name selected on the ballot, waiting for confirmation from their partner before setting ballots into designated piles.
If the ballot was left blank for the contest, it fell into an undervote pile and those that appeared to have multiple selections were filtered into an overvote pile.
After sorting ballots into candidate piles, each official at each table tallied the ballots under each pile taking notes of their own before checking it against their partner’s math. If the numbers don’t line up, they count again.
Once each team agrees on their counts, they raise their hand and wait for one of the runners to come by. The runners have the machine count tallies and will listen for any inconsistencies.
If the results don’t match up, the officials count again. If the total differs from what the machine reported, that anomaly gets reported to the county and eventually the secretary of state.
Sometimes things like a write-in bubble filled in but no name written on the line might create these anomalies.
As of 5 p.m., the officials had processed just over 86,000 ballots and found 3 variances from the original results. One vote originally recorded for Herrera Beutler changed to an undervote, or where a voter did not select a candidate, another flipped from a vote for Van De Wege to DePoe, and one undervote became a vote for Herrera Beutler, according to King County.
In King County, that leaves Herrera Beutler’s result unchanged, Van de Wege down one vote and DePoe up one. Upthegrove and Kuehl Pederson’s totals remained the same after the first day of counting.
Officials will continue the process, tallying batches of about 250 votes at a time until the recount is done. About 100 people, a mix of full-time and temporary staff, are helping in the effort.
The county anticipates working through Saturday, and next Tuesday, and certifying the recount Sept. 4. While there have historically been some variances found in a recount, they have not changed the winner in a recent election, said Jerelyn Hampton, ballot processing manager for the county.
The lands commissioner contest saw a crowded primary with two Republican candidates and five Democrats. In this contest, about 57% of voters cast a ballot for a Democrat.
Democrat Patrick DePoe, former Makah vice chair and DNR’s director of tribal relations, garnered 14% of the vote, followed by restoration ecologist and forester Allen Lebovitz with 10%, Democratic legislator Kevin Van De Wege with 7.5% and Redmond City Council member Jeralee Anderson with 4%.
The last election that triggered a statewide recount was in 2004 when Christine Gregoire became governor by 133 votes after two recounts and court challenges. The last statewide primary race that triggered a recount was in 1960, when just 252 or 0.13% of the vote separated two superintendent of public instruction candidates.
In Washington, the top two vote-getters in the primary advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation. Earlier this month both Upthegrove and Kuehl Pederson’s campaigns raced to “cure ballots” or reach voters whose ballots have not been counted, likely due to signature issues. More than 10,000 voters fixed their ballots, according to the secretary of state.
In Washington, a machine recount is required for votes with a difference of 2,000 votes and less than 0.5% of the vote, and a manual recount for 1,000 votes and 0.25% of the vote.
Observers, including four from each political party and two from each campaign, were watching the recount in King County on Monday.
Among them is Betty Means, a former aide for congressman Mike Lowry. She’s been here before, but not since the ‘04 gubernatorial recount when she actually had a hand in counting votes.
“I do trust in this process,” Means said, “greatly.”
