Tag Archives: Secretary of State

Two local House races watched by state for potential recount

The Washington Secretary of State’s office sent out notice it is tracking four elections for possible automatic recount. Two of them are local races, the House contest between Democrat Larry Seaquist and Republican Michelle Caldier in the 26th District. Seaquist is the incumbent, but late Tuesday Caldier led by 78 votes.

Democratic incumbent Kathy Haigh led Republican Dan Griffey in a 35th District House race by 223 votes.

To generate an automatic recount the margin must be less than 2,000 votes and less than a half-percentage point. The Seaquist-Caldier race fits well within than range. Caldier leads Seaquist with a 0.26 percentage point margin. The contest in the 35th does not, with Haigh holding a 0.68 percentage point edge.

The other races the state is watching is Initiative 1351 and a state House race in the 28th District. They are also keeping tabs on a race in the 17th and 44th District.

In county races the prosecutor contest is worth watching as well. Democrat Russ Hauge leads Republican Tina Robinson by 0.4 percentage points.

A manual recount could be ordered if the margin is any less than a 0.25 percentage point.

What to watch, then, will be how the late votes swing the contests. In the early years of all-mail-in voting late ballots favored Republicans decidedly. Those results have come close to evening out in the most recent years, however, and Kitsap Democrats expressed confidence Tuesday night that late votes will go their way. We’ll know a lot more around 5 p.m. when the county and state release the first day’s results of late-ballot counting.

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State helps explain tax advisory votes

The Secretary of State’s office has issued an FAQ on the tax advisory votes on your ballot. Voters have a chance to weigh in on $200 million in new revenues the Legislature approved this year. The advisory vote provision was part of Initiative 960.

The ballots ask voters if the Legislature should maintain the new revenue or repeal it. Here is one of the questions answered in the secretary’s FAQ:

Q. So if a majority of the public vote goes for the “repeal” option, the tax will go away?
A. No, the vote is nonbinding. That means the Legislature can take note of the public vote — or not. There is not an automatic repeal, as could happen with a regular referendum or initiative process.

The full version of the FAQ can be found at the Secretary of State’s blog “From Our Corner.”

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State payout to local counties $800,000 for election to replace Inslee in Congress

Kitsap County received $55,706.21 for its share of last year’s election to replace Jay Inslee in Congress for a month.

Jerry Corn at the (Everett) Herald has the story revealing the final amount the state paid to local counties to add an election to replace Jay Inslee in Congress.

Inslee resigned for his seat in Congress early in 2012 to focus on the governor’s race, which I’m guessing most of you know he won.

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