Work began across Washington’s 39 counties Monday to recount the more than 1.9 million ballots cast in the race for commissioner of public lands, which the Washington state Secretary of State called the “closest statewide race” in primary history.
According to initial results from the August primary, just 51 votes, a 0.0064% difference, separates Democrat Dave Upthegrove, who currently sits in second place, and Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson, who sits in third place.
The two candidates placed second and third behind former Third District Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican who leads both candidates by more than 20,000 votes.
While Upthegrove narrowly outpaced Kuehl Pederson across the state, Kuehl Pederson received greater support in Lewis County. Across the county, Kuehl Pederson received 29.95% of the vote to Upthegrove’s 7.6%.
“I have full confidence in our tabulation system and our staff, and so I don’t anticipate any issues,” Lewis County Chief Deputy Auditor Tom Stanton said Monday.
In an announcement Thursday, the Secretary of State’s Office said it had directed county election offices to conduct the recount. Counties will be reimbursed by the state for costs incurred in the process.
“We are confident our election officials and workers throughout the state’s 39 county election offices administered an accurate and reliable election for all Washingtonians,” Assistant Secretary of State Kevin McMahan said in a statement. “The mandatory recount underscores the importance of every vote and reaffirms the commitment of our county election officials to ensuring accurate election results. We ask for everyone’s patience as county election officials administer the manual recount to ensure that the intent of every voter is accurately heard.”
At the Lewis County Auditor’s Office, the work began promptly at 9 a.m. as election workers took an oath of office before receiving a brief set of instructions. Inside the small office were representatives from the Upthegrove and Kuehl Pederson campaigns tasked with ensuring election officials followed protocol.
According to a set of rules distributed by the auditor’s office, representatives for campaigns and parties are permitted to observe the proceedings, though they cannot touch ballots.
“Political party observers have the right of witnessing the proceedings only for the purpose of ascertaining if the statutes and rules pertaining to the ballot tabulation process are properly carried out,” the rules state.
Workers planned to count “as many as possible” votes until roughly 4 p.m., with work continuing each work day until the 23,577 votes submitted by Lewis County are tabulated by hand.
Stanton estimates that the work should be completed in four days.
While there is limited space for observers in the processing room, an overflow space to watch the proceedings is available on TVs in the auditor’s office.
According to Stanton, the last county-wide recount occurred in 2014 in the race for Lewis County assessor.
In that race, the initial results from the general election showed that 29 votes separated incumbent Dianne Dorey and challenger Candy Hallom. According to previous reporting by The Chronicle, the recount did not change Dorey’s vote count, though it added six votes for Hallom.
The last hand recount the county conducted was in 2021, when the Napavine fire district's proposal to increase the area's levy failed with 927 ballots in support and 928 ballots against it.
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, the race for commissioner of public lands is the closest in the history of Washington’s primaries, edging out the 252 votes that separated the candidates for superintendent of public instruction in the 1960 primary.
Nearly 41% of registered voters in Washington state submitted ballots in the August primary, a decline over both the 2020 primary and 2022 primary. Ballots for the general election will be mailed to eligible voters by Oct. 18.
The general election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
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