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After two days of hand-counting 72,681 ballots, Whatcom County election officials reported Thursday, Aug. 29 there were no major changes to the race for Public Lands Commissioner.
The hand recount, which started the morning of Monday Aug. 26 and ended Tuesday, Aug. 27, is mandatory under state law. The recount will determine who faces the leading candidate, Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican, in the November general election. The vote difference between Dave Upthegrove, currently the No. 2 candidate, and Sue Kuehl Peterson, the No. 3 candidate, was 51 votes, or 0.0064%.
If Upthegrove, a Democrat and King County Councilmember, maintains his lead, he will proceed to the general election.
In Whatcom County, there were three voter corrections that led to Upthegrove losing one vote, Patrick DePoe gaining a vote, Allen Lebovitz gaining two votes and Kevin Van De Wege losing two votes. All four men are Democrats.
Whatcom County will certify the results of the hand recount at 11 a.m. Sept. 3 at the Whatcom County Courthouse.
As of Thursday morning, 28 out of 39 counties had completed their portions of the mandatory hand recount. All recounts have to be certified by the county canvassing board by Sept. 3.
The public lands commissioner race is the first primary election recount since 1960 and the closest race in the history of Washington’s primary, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
The last time Whatcom County had a mandatory hand recount was in the 2018 general election between Doug Ericksen and Pinky Vargas for the 42nd Legislative District Senate seat.
Ericksen won the seat by just 45 votes. Two years later, Ericksen died of COVID-19 after testing positive for the virus while in El Salvador.
During the recount process in Whatcom County, 21 election officials sat in pairs, diligently sorting and counting ballots, noting with green pen on a sheet of paper what the tally was.
Whatcom County Auditor Stacy Henthorn said Tuesday morning she’d seen more observers come into the counting room for the hand count than the counting for the primary races.
“People are more interested, I guess, in the hand count,” she said. “Or maybe they trust the Whatcom County Election Division.”
General election ballots will be sent out starting Oct. 18, according to the Secretary of State office. Ballots must be received by the auditor’s office or dropped off in a ballot box by 8 p.m. on Nov. 5.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
