As more ballots were counted, Washington's 3rd Congressional District race remains tense as Marie Gluesenkamp Perez continues to hold a lead over Joe Kent, but the pressure is far from over with nearly 89,000 ballots yet to be counted across the district.
Wednesday afternoon's round of updates show Perez, D-Stevenson, with 114,675 votes, or 52.07 percent of the total, and Kent, R-Yacolt, following with 104,402 votes, or 47.38 percent of the 220,362 votes tallied, according to the Washington Secretary of State's office.
Write-in ballots cast throughout the district totaled 1,285, accounting for 0.58 percent of the total.
Elections officials in all but one of the remaining 3rd Congressional District counties reported 88,886 ballots left to count, with an undetermined total for the small piece of Thurston County that is part of the district.
In Clark County, Perez now has 78,377 votes, or 58.21 percent of the total, and Kent has 56,271 votes, or 41.79 percent of the 134,648 votes tallied. Another 70,000 ballots remain to be processed in the county. As of Wednesday, Clark County reported a 41.92 percent voter turnout — a decent jump from Tuesday's 36.37 percent turnout.
Perez was the top vote-getter in Clark and Pacific counties, whereas Kent was the favored candidate in Cowlitz, Lewis, Skamania, Thurston and Wahkiakum counties.
There is still no guarantee of who will secure Southwest Washington's congressional seat.
The next round of ballot tallies from Lewis, Skamania and Wahkiakum counties is expected to be released close to 5 p.m. Thursday. Clark and Cowlitz counties, as well as the 3rd District's portion of Thurston County, will post an update around 6 p.m. Pacific County, which has 186 remaining votes left to process, will provide its tally at 4 p.m. Nov. 14.
Election results will be certified on Nov. 29.
