OLYMPIA — After losing a bid for Congress to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez last month, Republican Joe Kent on Friday requested a recount of the results in the Nov. 8 election.
Considered one of the more dramatic contests in the 2022 midterm elections, Gluesenkamp Perez, a moderate Democrat, beat Kent, who leaned hard to the right in the race for the state's 3rd Congressional District in Southwest Washington.
Kent's campaign asked Friday for a machine recount, according to the Washington Secretary of State's Office.
Another defeated Republican candidate for Congress in Washington, Doug Basler, this week requested hand recounts of votes in two precincts, the Secretary of State's Office said. Basler lost to incumbent Democratic Rep. Adam Smith in the race for the 9th Congressional District.
Gluesenkamp Perez defeated Kent, who was backed by former President Donald Trump, by 2,629 votes, 0.83% of the total votes cast for both candidates.
That's above Washington's margin for a mandatory recount. Recounts are required in races where the difference between two candidates is 2,000 votes or fewer and that difference is less than one half of 1% of the total number of votes cast for both candidates.
Campaigns can also request recounts, which is what Kent's campaign did. The requester must pay for the recount. The Kent campaign paid a deposit of $48,589.05 Friday for the recount, said Derrick Nunnally, deputy director of external affairs for the Washington Secretary of State.
The campaign declined a request for comment Friday.
In the written request for a recount to the Secretary of State's Office, Ozzie Gonzalez, of the Kent campaign, said the campaign did "not doubt that election workers in the seven counties worked honestly and competently to tally the ballots."
"Given the small margin, we believe it is in the public's interest that a recount be conducted," Gonzalez wrote. "We would be equally supportive of a recount if it was our candidate who was in the lead by the same margin we are now behind."
Candidates request recounts occasionally, but not in every election cycle, Nunnally said. He said recounts were requested in several precincts for various races in the 2020 election cycle.
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs certified the results of the Nov. 8 election Wednesday. Candidates must request a recount within two business days of the certification.
"We are confident our county election officials and workers throughout the Third and Ninth Districts, and across the state, administered an accurate and reliable election for all Washingtonians," Hobbs said in a statement Friday. "We respect any candidate's right to request a recount, and we will proceed and support the counties accordingly. We ask that all concerned parties be patient as they await the recounted results."
Since 2011, the 3rd District has been represented by Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, who voted to impeach Trump and came in third in the August primary.
Between 2007 and 2021, in 125 recounts of general election results, the outcome changed in just three of those instances, according to the Secretary of State's Office. Each of those instances were in municipal elections and initial results had a margin of three or fewer votes.
