OLYMPIA — The Office of the Secretary of State certified the August 6 Primary results Thursday 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.
In the 2024 Commissioner of Public Lands primary contest, Democrat Dave Upthegrove defeated Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson for second place 396,300 votes to 396,249 votes — a difference of 51 (0.0064%). The candidate with the second-most votes following the statewide recount will join Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican and the race’s top vote-getter, on the November 5 General Election ballot.
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.
“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, OSOS 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.
Additional recount information can be found on the Office of the Secretary of State Elections website.
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 November 5 General Election will be mailed to eligible voters by October 18. The deadline for online and mail registrations to be received is October 28. You can register to vote or update your registration in person any time before 8 p.m. on Election Day, November 5.
Washington’s Office of the Secretary of State oversees areas within state government including managing state elections, registering corporations and charities, and governing the use of the state flag and state seal. The office operates the State Archives and the State Library, documents extraordinary stories in Washington’s history through Legacy Washington, and administers the Combined Fund Drive for charitable giving by state employees and the Productivity Board state employee suggestion program. The Office of the Secretary of State also oversees the state’s Address Confidentiality Program to help protect survivors of crime.