King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove appears to have secured his ticket to a November faceoff with Republican former U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler to become the next state commissioner of public lands.
The Secretary of State directed the state's 39 counties to complete a hand recount of 1.9 million ballots on Aug. 23 after the final tally left the No. 2 and 3 candidates in the primary race separated by just 51 votes. Upthegrove had narrowly edged out GOP-endorsed Sue Kuehl Pederson by a thousandth of a percentage point.
It was the first statewide recount in a primary election since 1960, and is believed to be the closest race in the history of Washington's primary.
Unofficial results suggest there were no significant changes in the results, with many counties reporting no discrepancies. Every county except King certified their recount results on Tuesday. King had two other local recounts to complete on Tuesday and planned to certify their results Wednesday.
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs is expected to certify the amended results at noon Wednesday.
Election officials found a 99.99% accuracy rate based on information available Tuesday afternoon, said Stuart Holmes, director of elections for the Secretary of State. Upthegrove had a net gain of about 6 votes, while Kuehl Pederson had a net gain of 4 votes, as of 5 p.m. Tuesday. The margin was 53 votes in Upthegrove's favor.
The biggest changes were seen in Snohomish and Island counties, where Upthegrove and Kuehl Pederson each netted three votes from five recounted ballots in Island County and seven ballots in Snohomish. Upthegrove also netted two votes in Okanogan County and in preliminary results, the two candidates both lost two votes in King County. All other counties reported no change or the change of one vote.
For the campaigns, the unofficial results mark the end of a frenzied period in which both campaigns scrambled to gather volunteers to cure challenged ballots, or reach voters whose ballots had not been counted, mostly due to signature issues, before the deadline. More than 10,000 voters fixed their ballots, according to the secretary of state.
Upthegrove said Tuesday that he's feeling thankful for the volunteers that helped cure ballots, monitor the recount and the election workers who put in the overtime to help finish this up.
Upthegrove, who has the endorsements from the Sierra Club and Washington Conservation Action, has pledged to pause the sales of so-called legacy forests, which are not considered old growth but are stands of older trees. These forests are more biodiverse, provide better wildlife habitat and combat climate change better than plantation forests logged on short rotations.
He has said he would like to increase the amount of trust lands managed by the state to eventually produce more timber while protecting some of these older, structurally diverse, naturally regenerated forests. Upthegrove has also said he wants to ramp up prescribed burns and thinning forests to help reduce fire risks, and generate revenue from clean-energy development on state lands for rural communities.
"I think the difference is in who we're serving," he said of his opponent. "It's in where our motivation is coming from. The policies need to not just advance the economic interests of the industries that use our public lands, they need to benefit the people of the state broadly, and that's what I'm going to fight for as lands commissioner."
Kuehl Pederson's team was also going door-to-door to cure ballots in the week leading up to the deadline to tally the votes.
Kuehl Pederson and her campaign did not respond to a request for an interview Tuesday.
"For all intents and purposes, barring a miracle, it's done," said Herrera Beutler, who said she's been happy to see this recount bring an often overlooked contest and position some more attention.
Herrera Beutler is hoping to distinguish herself from the "status quo" Democrats who have continued a pattern of setting aside lands for conservation and listening to what she calls "extreme" conservation groups. She said she believes this has contributed to worsening fire seasons.
"This state is wholly run by Democrats at the state level," she said. "If it's not working, and if climate change is continuing to deteriorate our forests, and if management, mismanagement or neglect is continuing to deteriorate them, then for crying out loud, let's not go with the same thing. Let's change things up."
She said she believes she and Upthegrove share the same goals, although they propose different paths to get there. She argues that Upthegrove would continue the status quo, while she would keep state forests in harvest cycles while replanting with more fire-resilient species, and implementing more selective harvests to create a diversity of ages and species of trees.
Meanwhile, Upthegrove has refused to accept funds from the timber companies and fundraising groups. He says their voting records, like her 14% lifetime legislative score from the League of Conservation Voters, clearly distinguish them from one another.
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 2004, there were only two candidates to worry about. In the latest recount, election officials had to divvy up ballots in piles for seven candidates as well as undervotes (ballots apparently left blank), overvotes (ballots that appear to have multiple candidates selected) and write-in.
King County, for example, brought in about 100 full time and temporary staff to help process the recount of about one third of the state's ballots. They also opened the door to observers, including four from each political party and two from each campaign.
"It's never stood the test of a full hand recount of the entire state since 2004. Just having that reassurance that everything that we've done has been the right move for the right reasons has been really exciting," Holmes said. "There's all kinds of little things that you learn through all of this, but just having that evidence to go back to and say, 'Oh no, our system is working as expected. And here's the hand counted result to show that.'"
Typically a vote may change in a recount because of a voter-intent issue.
For example, a voter may have bubbled in two candidates, then struck one out, causing a machine not to count it for any one candidate. Or a voter may have become fatigued while working their way down their ballot and only shaded the bubble lightly, leading a machine to see it as blank.
A voter-intent review by election officials using a state handbook may lead those votes to be corrected.
The Secretary of State will request funding from the state Legislature to reimburse counties for all of the costs incurred for the recount.
The lands commissioner contest drew a crowded primary with two Republican candidates and five Democrats. In this contest, about 57% of voters cast a ballot for a Democrat.
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