September 20, 2006
Nailbiter in 43rd

In the state House 43rd District Democratic primary, Jamie Pedersen is currently leading Jim Street by 35 votes, or 0.35%. At the rate which King Cantcounty is tabulating ballots this election, it may be several more years before they complete the first count. If the margin between the top candidates stays below 0.5% there will be a mandatory recount. Note that Jim Street is endorsed by Ron Sims. Watch this one closely. Very closely.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 20, 2006 09:59 AM | Email This
Comments
1. 25% of Snohomish County ballots have been tossed because the design of the ballot was bunk; my King County ballot was rejected three times by itself and two more times with an election worker holding buttons that were supposed to cure the problem. I finally had to ignore the ballot instructions, fill out the ballot as a gross under-vote as opposed to an "independent", to get the reader to accept it. I had the same problem in last years primary.

This system is so screwed-up that I now seriously doubt that anything is legal, above board or accurate. The all-mail will only make it worse. I hate to say this but I'm about done as a voter.

I predict that Street will win. It may take two or three re-counts, but he will win. Let's hope I'm wrong.

Posted by: G Jiggy on September 20, 2006 10:25 AM
2. GJiggy--your experience is scary--but--bigger picture--why do we continue to tolerate this crappy system and faults? any small busiess would fix a problem pronto and make everything customer-friendly.

no excuse for all the resources we throw at voting--design, printing, hjandling, layouts--it should be simple & nearly foolproof for a 3rd or 4th grader to do & for us to accurately count--with fraud protection---why the continued voting hassles?

answer--corruption.

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 20, 2006 11:05 AM
3. Sounds like Street has won it,
in a Gregoire landslide

Posted by: Brent in Ferndale on September 20, 2006 11:48 AM
4. Stefan -- it is 0.5% when comparing the top two candidates, not 0.5% of the overall vote. Jamie Pederson has 2,300 and Jim Street has 2,265. Add these together, and you get 4,565. The 35 vote difference is 0.7667%, not enough to trigger a mandatory recount. Trust me -- I have been there and done that.

Posted by: Richard Pope on September 20, 2006 12:23 PM
5. Time for the Ron Sims machine to starty pulling ballots out of the hat.

They will need a "Larry Phillips" like voter to step forward and cry about almost being disenfranchised. They will also need a lot of absentee ballots that have not been properly validated so they can cherry-pick for Jim Street. And I'm sure that when the Canvassing Board kicks in, they will be able to find a small stray mark somewhere near the "Party Affiliation" oval on the Jim Street ballots that will allow them to divine voter intent and get those last few ballots needed to send Street to victory.

I'm not worried, KCREALS has lots of past experience, Jim Street will be the winner.

Posted by: Jeff B. on September 20, 2006 12:53 PM
6. I noticed on the list of people that endorsed Street that some people more than once. Think their votes will be counted twice too?

Posted by: c on September 20, 2006 03:02 PM
7. Looks like KingCo has no votes to add in their latest update...7 PM is the next scheduled.

Posted by: Alcon on September 20, 2006 03:28 PM
8. According to SoS site, as of Tuesday's first returns, 11.09% of voters statewide did not select a party preference. The differences ranged from 1.72% in Mason Co. to 28.18% in Franklin Co. Over 76,000 voters did not register votes for Senators or local Representatives. Could this change some numbers in November? Maybe.

Independents? Protest votes? Poor ballot layout? Poor instructions? Inability to follow instructions? Don't know. What's a good number?

Thus far, KC has an 11% turnout with 10.7% of those not selecting a party preference.

Strangely, Asotin has not reported numbers broken out by party...

Posted by: SouthernRoots on September 20, 2006 03:51 PM
9. I think that most people like to consider themselves "independent" (even if they vote a straight party ticket). Most candidates running under a party banner are running by themselves or against somebody with little or no recognition. The Cantvotewell and Trang contest is a perfect example. Trang got a few votes but nothing close to Cantvotewell. I don't think that there really is a point to voting party in these primaries. I suspect that a lot of people feel the same way. Maybe in protest?

Posted by: G Jiggy on September 20, 2006 05:35 PM
10. SouthernRoots,

Very odd. I can't see why so few people in Mason would select party, and so many in Franklin. A difference I can imagine, but less than 2% versus over a quarter?

It's obvious that a lot of counties still have a lot to report. Cowlitz, Island, King, and Yakima haven't even reached 20% turnout.

Posted by: Alcon Nighthawk on September 20, 2006 07:22 PM
11. G Jiggy,

I like to think that a lot of people would cast protest votes. But the polls generally contradict the idea that most voters identify as independent. In the 2004 exit poll, only 33% identified as such. 36% in the state identified as Democrats; 32% as Republicans.

It seems like a lot of effort to go to, to turn out to vote simply to throw it away. It may not be romantic, but I think that a certain number of voters just screwed up.

Posted by: Alcon Nighthawk on September 20, 2006 07:28 PM
12. New 43rd numbers --

Pederson 24.31%
Street 22.68%

Posted by: Alcon Nighthawk on September 20, 2006 08:15 PM
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