A recount is coming in race for WA public lands commissioner

After days of dizzying back and forth in Washington’s race for public lands commissioner, the primary election results are in – and they’re going to a recount.

Counties certified their ballot tallies Tuesday, teeing up Democrat Dave Upthegrove to face off against former Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler (R) for the lands commissioner job this fall.

But out of the more than 1.9 million votes cast in the race, Upthegrove received just 51 more than the third-place Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson, a razor-thin margin that triggers an automatic hand recount.

Since results started flowing on Aug. 6, Pederson and Upthegrove had been locked in a tightening battle for a spot on the November ballot. No other statewide race was as close as this one by far.

The state lands commissioner oversees management of millions of acres of public lands – including wildfire response – as the head of the state's Department of Natural Resources. The department manages much of the state's forests and waters, as well as the revenue from activities like timber harvests and recreation.

The recount in the race will happen after officials in the Secretary of State’s office certify counties’ reported results later this week, according to Stuart Holmes, elections director for that office.

“[The recount] will not impact the certification of the primary – in fact we need the primary to be certified so that we can use that to compare the recounted results against,” Holmes said.

State law requires a recount when there are fewer than two thousand votes and a half a percentage point separating a winning statewide candidate and the loser – and if the margin of victory is less than one thousand votes and a quarter of a percentage point, those recounts are done by hand.

It’s a reality officials had already been preparing for as the number of uncounted ballots – and the number of votes between Pederson and Upthegrove – gradually dwindled in recent days.

Upthegrove’s campaign kicked into high gear last week, urging supporters to help Democratic voters “cure” or address issues with some ballots. Elections officials allow voters to fix issues arising from the signature on their ballot – like if it’s missing or doesn’t match the signature officials have on file – but ballots that were submitted after the voting deadline cannot be counted.

In a statement Tuesday night, Upthegrove thanked volunteers for working on curing as many ballots as possible and said his campaign is already looking toward November.

“This heroic ‘ballot curing’ effort involved more than 350 active volunteers who made thousands of phone calls and door knocks to reach voters with challenged ballots,” Upthegrove said in the statement. “In a race this close, it made the difference.”

Ahead of election day, Democrats acknowledged there was a chance that the five candidates in the race from their party could split the vote and leave only Republicans on the ballot in November.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Upthegrove said the situation revealed “flaws” in the state’s election system.

“Any time you have a scenario like this where the Democrats combined get 57% of the vote but there might be two Republicans advancing, that doesn’t serve the interest of Democracy and the Legislature ought to look at other elections models to avoid this kind of outcome,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pederson remained optimistic the morning after counties certified their ballot counts, and said that she’s enjoyed campaigning – both this year and in 2020, when she also ran for lands commissioner.

“Beyond my imagination, I’ve been able to share my vision for Washington public lands with so many people… and I just feel incredibly satisfied that people seem to like what I’m thinking,” Pederson said.

Pederson said she’s eager for the final outcome, after days of waiting. When early ballot counts began trickling in after voting closed on Aug. 6, she said she passed the time by doing yard work and laundry at home.

“I was ahead at that time, and I prayed to god to just take over from there so that’s what I did,” Pederson said. “I told my campaign manager that’s what I want and he can just call me whenever he wanted to tell me any results.”

Pederson said she’s now working to organize observers in each of the state’s 39 counties to track the recount effort. The process is likely to take several more days and cost the state around half a million dollars. Holmes says counties will be reimbursed for the costs of the recount.

But a recount in the primary means election staff will be working against the clock to finalize the ballots in time for general election voting. Ballots must be mailed to voters overseas and to members of the military by Sept. 21, giving the state less than a month to finalize the fall ballot and other voter materials.