Closest Washington Primary in Over 60 Years Goes To Recount

A mandatory manual recount in the primary election for State Commissioner of Public Lands was triggered on Tuesday when all 39 counties certified their primary results.  Former Congresswoman Jamie Herrera-Buetler won the primary with just over 22% of the vote.  Who she will face in November is still unknown.

King County Council President Dave Upthegrove (D) currently leads environmental analyst Sue Kuehl Pederson (R) by a razor thin 51 votes.  The last time a primary race in Washington State was this close was almost 65 years ago.

The 1960 primary for Superintendent of Public Instruction also went to a manual recount to determine second place.  A.T. Van Devanter and Harold L. Anderson were the candidates in the too close to call primary.  Van Devanter would finish in 2nd by a mere 252 votes after the manual recount (e would go on to lose in November to Louis Bruno).

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How Does A Manual Recount Work?

There are two different types of recounts in Washington State, machine and manual.  A recount is automatically triggered when the difference between two candidates is less than one half of one percent and less than a 2,000 vote separation.  A mandatory manual recount (which happened in this case) is triggered when the difference is less than one quarter of one percent and less than a 1,000 vote separation.

All 39 counties will begin manual recounting every vote received this Saturday August 24th.  They have until September 3rd to certify their recount results with the Secretary of State's Office certified the recount results the next day.

Why Do They Take So Long?

The wide berth is given to allow larger counties the ability to hand count all of their votes.  A county like Garfield (the smallest in the State) is only counting 796 ballots and will be done relatively quickly.  A medium sized county like Franklin has 14,404 ballots to count.  Then you have King (the largest in the State) who has 559,374 ballots to go through.

Are The Results Official After The Recount is Done?

Yes and No.  One of the candidates can file paperwork within two days of the Secretary of State's offices certification to request another recount if the aren't happy with the results.  However, the candidate requesting has to pay for the recount to take place.  If no one challenges the certification, the results are official.  In the case of a requested recount by a candidate, once all requests have been exhausted the Secretary of State certifies the count and the results are then final.

In case you were wondering what the Commissioner of Public Lands does, they are responsible for overseeing all lands under the State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and leads the State wildfire fighting force.