Pierce County election workers start hand recount in historically tight statewide race

More than 100 people got up bright and early Saturday morning in Pierce County to begin a hand recount of one of the closest primary election races in Washington state history.

Past a windowed hallway and through a secure door in the Pierce County Elections Center, gloved election workers spoke in hushed tones as observers and staff milled around them. The room echoed with the sound of thousands of pieces of paper being flipped and shuffled into piles.

The process is part of statewide recount triggered by a razor-thin margin between the second and third place candidates in the race for state Commissioner of Public Lands . According to the results, Democrat Dave Upthegrove was beating Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson by only 51 votes.

The second-place winner of the recount will face off with Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler on November 5. Under Washington’s primary system, the top two vote-getters advance regardless of party affiliation. If Pederson prevails, two Republican candidates would advance to the general election.

This is the first time there’s been a statewide primary recount in Washington since 1960. Pierce County will be recounting all 213,192 ballots cast Aug. 6 to make sure those numbers line up with the votes tabulated by the county’s Clear Ballot machine.

Starting Saturday, teams of two people began to recount 876 batches of about 250 ballots each, officials said. Their work starts up again next week. They expect to finish by Monday, said Derrick Nunnally, communications manager for the Pierce County Auditor’s Office. Other counties in the region begin their recounts next week.

Members of the public are encouraged to observe the process for themselves and visit the elections building at 2501 S. 35th St. in Tacoma.

County auditor Linda Farmer told The News Tribune during a visit Saturday there haven’t been any security concerns this year, since the elections office received a suspicious package of white powder last November with a note, ‘Stop the election.’ The substance was later determined to be baking soda, but the office was evacuated for several hours. Similar unknown white substances, including some laced with Fentanyl, have been sent to King County and Spokane County election offices, in addition to other offices around the country.

Farmer said the office has since upped its security, including a security guard patrolling the recount floor. The FBI is still investigating what happened last year, she said.

“It’s frustrating, because this is a bedrock of our democracy and this is just something that we do as a matter of course,” Farmer said. “We are really looking forward to making government boring again. We’ve been doing it for decades. This is just part of our service to the residents of Pierce County. We administer secure and trustworthy elections.”

So how does the recount process work?

Walking around the floor Saturday, Farmer explained the ‘batch audit’ process the county uses where teams of two hired seasonal election workers unseal batches of about 250 completed ballots and sort them by how each resident voted in the Commissioner of Public Lands race.

Once the ballots are in piles, election workers count the number of ballots for each candidate and double check that those are the same number as their partner’s tally and previous tallies. When those numbers match, a full time elections staffer is called over and they triple check, Farmer said.

Washington is a voter intent state, meaning staffers use a manual from the Secretary of State’s office to guide them on evaluating the candidate the voter intended to endorse. Sometimes people mark two candidates, cross one out or don’t fill in the bubble next to their candidate entirely, but elections staff have spent a lot of time determining that, Farmer said.

Each candidate for Commissioner of Public Lands is allowed to appoint two observers to watch the process and each political party, in addition to the League of Women Voters, which represents Independents, can appoint observers, she said.

“Some people relegate their observers to the hallways or to a special room with cameras, but we like to give as much access as possible,” Farmer said.

Stronger faith in the election system

Robin Echtle, an observer with the Democratic Party, said she was motivated to watch the process for the first time Saturday after learning how two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, faced harassment and threats when they were falsely accused by Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani of election fraud .

“Their lives were ruined,” Echtle said. “And I thought, well, I need to volunteer because they volunteered and they were strong and I was inspired by them.”

Tuyen Nguyen said it was also her first time participating in and counting ballots as an election worker. She said the process gave her more confidence in the electoral system.

Her ballot partner, Charles Walker, said this is his second recount but he has been processing ballots to some degree for more than 10 years as a retiree looking for part-time work.

“It fits my lifestyle,” he said. “It’s very impressive how much manpower goes into making sure every vote counts … I think anybody who questions the integrity of elections should come down and be an observer, because this is reality.”