Thursday's ballot count brought some good news to Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna, who trails Democrat and former Rep. Jay Inslee in the Washington governor's race.
McKenna, with 48.87 percent of the vote to Inslee's 51.13percent, picked up 0.2 percent in King County on Thursday, according to ballot figures released by the county.
This, said McKenna's campaign manager Charles McCray III, validates the campaign's own data, which showed late voters favored McKenna.
"We expect the gap will continue to close," McCray III said. He added that he does not expect a final result for days given the number of votes still to be counted. State estimates put that number at potentially more than 700,000 uncounted ballots.
The marijuana legalization measure, I-502, held steady with a likely insurmountable 10-point lead at 55.44 in favor to 45.46 against. The Washington State Liquor Board already has announced plans to help implement the new law.
The effort to legalize gay marriage, R-74, also remained steady at 52.4 percent in favor to 47.6 against. The consistency of the gap prompted the measure's opponents to concede the race. King County announced plans to extend business hours and begin to issue same-sex marriage licenses Dec. 6.
The charter schools measure, I-1240, remained too close to call with 51 percent in favor and 49 percent against.
Look here for more updates late Thursday and Friday.
And it would be refreshing for this state to step out of the box of always voting for democrats (actually most counties in our state vote Republican. I am referring to King County in particular with its giant cluster of residents). We need some diversity and fresh ideas and Rob Mckenna would offer that and help us get out of our financial mess. Unfortunately, Jay Inslee is all about Jay Inslee and represents a narrow wing of residents in our state and is in bondage to special interests, and does not offer fiscial restraint capabilities. Let's hope late ballots puts Rob over the top. It sure is a close race.
That's a capital idea . . . .Base the will of the populace on the number of counties . . . sorta like corporations are people . . .One vote . . .one county . . .and then King County only gets one vote . . Genius!
Inslee: 1,230,618 McKenna: 1,176,220 McKenna would have to get 377,200 votes to pull ahead (by one vote). This is only 53.9% of the vote, which seems very "do-able." Of course, the flip side is that Inslee only has to get 322,801 votes to retain his lead (by one vote), which is about 46.1% of the remaining votes. Basically, it is still a toss-up, and it really depends on where the bulk of the outstanding ballots are from. If it is King or Jefferson County, McKenna's goose is probably cooked.
The idea of 1 person one vote has been around for centuries - our founding fathers (i.e. James Madison) and brilliant conservative/libertarian philosophers before them (i.e. Edmund Burke) have gone to great lengths to discuss both sides of this issue regarding political representation - They have clearly demonstrated the advantages of representative government over this 1 person 1 vote (i.e. mob-ocracy), in my op. http://www.saveourstates.com/
I miss the trip to the polls here in WA, but believe mail ballots have given us a good, reliable system. Aspersions spit on poll workers in any county offend me, unless there is accompanying evidence, and perhaps, convictions. That Ferry County always votes Republican does not make me suspect that the Democratic votes are ignored in that county, their vote reflects the sentiments of the area.
Why don't you focus on finding better candidates (Mitt Romney? John McCain?) and be more inclusive, rather than just trying to appeal to angry old white men?