The votes are still being counted.
I mailed my ballot on Monday, it was received by King County Elections today. You can figure that most ballots mailed Monday or Tuesday would be counted by Friday. The numbers released tomorrow evening should be enough to declare winners in most races.
Usually late voting benefits Republicans, so I am told. I am guessing that a late "get out the vote" effort to boost U.S. Senator Patty Murray’s chances will benefit Democrats in state races, especially in King County.
I had heard that having Dino Rossi in the race against Patty Murray would give her a run for her money, and would prevent Murray from spending her money to help other races. I think that worked against the Republicans in races where a Tea Party Candidate was not running, for example: in the 48th State Legislative District Ross Hunter is about a point up on his opponent, former Washington State Republican Party Chair Diane Tebilius. She is anything but Tea Party material. Had Murray been up (or down) in the polls by 5 or 6 points the "get out the vote" effort would not have have had Joe Biden (twice), Michelle Obama, and a host of others showing up to support Patty Murray.
Here is the King County Elections web site.
Ross Hunter and Rodney Tom are in the 48 Legislative District, in King County.
The counts for state-wide and Federal elections are King Cointy’s numbers ONLY.
New numbers are available at 4:30 pm everyday until November 23, when the vote is certified.
The state collects and reports those totals (they have a neat iPhone app)
To further my Rossi selection backfired guesswork, it was quite likely that the state Senate was going to shift from Democratic Control to the Republicans by 1 or 2 seats, instead the Democrats might hold the Senate by 1 or 2 seats. One of those seats might be Rodney Tom’s.
• Three-term incumbent Sen. Tracey Eide, D-Federal Way, was leading her challenger, Republican Tony Moore, by just more than 2 percentage points in the 30th District in Southwest King County.
• Incumbent Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Bellevue, was leading his Republican challenger, Gregg Bennett, by just more than 1 percentage point in the 48th District, which includes parts of Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland, along with Medina and Clyde Hill.
• Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, was leading Republican challenger Dave Schmidt by 93 votes in Snohomish County's 44th District, which includes Mill Creek, Snohomish, Lake Stevens and parts of Marysville.
To gain a one-vote majority in the Senate, Republicans may need to take all three of those and hang onto other races in which they lead. Democrats made gains in all three of those races in Wednesday's count.
Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, acknowledged his party could lose three or four Senate seats but said he was encouraged that Democrats gained votes Wednesday in some close races.
"It's a good trend," he said. "It continues to appear that we're bucking the national trend."
3 races in King, Snohomish counties could help Dems keep control of Senate, Seattle Times Newspaper
The Democratss took a beating in Washington State, but not to the degree predicted about a week ago. Maybe they have the National Republican Senatorial Committee to thank.
