Secretary of State directs recount in lands commissioner race

The Office of the Secretary of State certified the Aug. 6 primary results Thursday, Aug. 22 and directed a mandatory manual recount of all votes for the statewide Commissioner of Public Lands race.

County election offices are estimating the recount will take seven business days to complete, according to a Aug. 22 Office of the Secretary of State news release.

In the 2024 Commissioner of Public Lands primary contest, Democrat Dave Upthegrove, of Des Moines, defeated Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson, of Lakewood, for second place 396,300 votes to 396,249 votes — a difference of 51 votes (0.0064%). The candidate with the second-most votes following the statewide recount will join Republican Jamie Herrera Beutler, of Camas, and the race’s top vote-getter, on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.

Upthegrove is a King County Council member whose District 5 includes part of Kent. He has been on the council since 2014.

The race is the closest statewide race in the history of Washington’s primary, exceeding the 1960 superintendent of public instruction primary where A. T. Van Devanter and Harold L. Anderson were separated by 252 votes, according to the news release.

“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. “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.”

Each of Washington’s 39 county canvassing boards will determine the date and time of the recount. Counties will review all ballots for the race, including overvotes, undervotes, and write-ins. After counties have completed their recounts, the secretary of state will certify the recounted results. The state will reimburse each county for all costs associated with this mandatory recount under RCW 29A.64.081.

Manual recounts, otherwise known as hand recounts, of statewide races are required when the difference between the candidates is less than one-quarter of 1% of the total votes cast for both candidates and also less than 1,000 votes.

Voter turnout

More than 1.9 million Washingtonians participated in the primary, a 40.9% turnout of the state’s 4.8 million registered voters. Races on voters’ ballots included statewide executives, congressional positions, state legislators, Washington Supreme Court and Superior Court seats, and many local offices and measures.

Over 2.5 million voters participated in the 2020 August primary — a 54.4% turnout. In 2022, almost 2 million voters participated in the August primary, a 40.4% statewide turnout.

Ballots for the Nov. 5 general election will be mailed to eligible voters by Oct. 18. The deadline for online and mail registrations to be received is Oct. 28. You can register to vote or update your registration in person any time before 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5.