Comments

1
Fiscal Cliff Countdown.....52 days
2
You can't really use Election Day voters as part of your "late voters broke my way" argument because a large number of those ballots -- more so than those mailed Saturday - Monday -- represent voters who had long since voted but hadn't dropped their ballot off. I reckon trends will flip back to those from election night when we get down to the final 200,000 ballots.
3
The pathetic thing about McKenna is that Rossi had a better shot of winning at this point during the vote counting in 2004 than McKenna has right now.

Oh well, it makes for fun reading.
4
I'm confused about something. How is the percentage margin shrinking while the numerical lead is growing? I thought maybe there was a third candidate, but it's just Inslee and McKenna.
5
Goldy, what are you going to do when McKenna finally loses? I think you should send him flowers.
6
@4 proportion
7
@ 3, from what I recall Rossi actually won the first and second counts, and only lost on the third. Better shot at winning? He did win.
8
@ 6, thanks. That was kinda counterintuitive, but then again it's been a long time since I did math like that.
9
@7, the last count is what counted Matt and the decision by the judge in Chelan County.
10
@ 9, "Having a better shot" is an odd way to describe a "lead." It would make sense if this appeared to be headed to a recount, but it doesn't look like it will.
11
So, in his best case scenario, McKenna needs to *win* by >6% in the remaining ballots?
12
@6 & @8, it's even more simple than proportion. On Election Day, Inslee got more votes. On Wednesday, Inslee got more votes. On Thursday, Inslee got more votes. More votes + more votes + more votes=more votes.

That his margin of more votes is lower doesn't mean he didn't get more votes. It just means that he got more votes.
13
Of 2,475,680 ballots counted, 2,406,838 have voted for either Inslee or McKenna, or 97.22%. One may assume that 2.78% of the total were either an under or over vote (a vote for no candidate, or for more than one candidate), or a vote for Donald Duck/my dog/my wang. There are an estimated 595,614 ballots left to be processed, of which approximately 97.22%, or 579,052 may be expected to contain a vote for either Inslee or McKenna. 2,406,838 votes have been counted for governor, plus 579,052 expected votes, equals 2,985,890 total statewide votes for governor, with approximately 1,492,945 votes needed to win. Inslee currently (as of 10:26pm 11/8/12) has 1,230,618 votes, and needs 262,327 more to win. McKenna currently has 1,176,220 votes, and needs 316,725 more votes to win. Thus, Inslee needs 45.30% of the remaining votes statewide to win. McKenna needs 54.70% of the remaining votes to win. (If, by some fluke, every single remaining ballot of the 595,614 left to count contains a viable vote for either candidate for governor, Inslee would need 45.43% of the remaining votes to win, and McKenna would need 54.57% of the remaining votes to win.)
14
Sorry, I'm off by one--1,492,946 votes needed to win. :) I believe the percentages are still correct.
15
The King County ballot tracker finally says they've received my ballot. I was getting a little bit worried.
16
New numbers are up as of 9am today. I won’t go through the math again, but Inslee now needs 45.31% of the expected remaining 595,646 votes to win, and McKenna now needs 54.69% of the remaining votes to win. Not much change.
17
For the citizens of Washington to reject the charter school law written by ALEC and bought by billionaires, the remaining votes will have to run about 54% against.

About a third of the votes left to be counted are from King County, which has been running against the ballot measure, but not in that proportion.

So, while it still remains "too close to call", there is little probability that the initiative will be rejected.
18
At this point, the only margin that really matters is the magical 2,000 vote threshold that triggers an automatic recount. And, of course, that could turn into a complete gong-show.

According to the Sec. of State, there have been 2,475,680 ballots counted as of last night. The estimated remaining ballots are 595,614, for a total turnout number of 3,071,294 (~79% -- holy crap!!).

So McKenna's total vote share would have to increase to about 49.93%. Statistically possible? Considering 36% (more than 214,000) of the remaining estimated ballots are from King County (and 80,000 more are in Snohomish county where Inslee is holding a good margin), I'll shave my mustache (after I grow one) if McKenna ultimately wins.
19
@16 Diana -- Damn, sister...you are way faster than me with the spreadsheet! I tip my hat...
20
Thanks, Mr. Happy. I missed my calling as a math nerd. Taking into account your point about the needed 2,000 vote lead to avoid a recount, as of 9am there have been 2,407,006 votes for governor, and there are 579,087 more expected votes to be counted (97.2% of the 595,646 left expected to contain viable governor votes). One would need 1,494,047 votes to win, including a +2,000 vote lead to stave off a recount. Inslee would need 45.48% of the expected remaining votes to win, and also avoid a recount. McKenna would need 54.45% of the expected remaining vote to win, and also avoid a recount.
21
I wonder what counts as early vote vs. late vote. I for one dropped my ballot off at the dropbox at Magnuson days before the election (is that early or late???) and it's yet to be counted.
22
You're not alone @21. I dropped mine off on Monday at Magnuson Park and it has been received but not verified.
23
OK, a few notes...

1) The 9am update consisted of 175 ballots tallied in Columbia County. No reason to recalculate your spreadsheet.

2) The count of "remaining ballots" is just an (under)estimate. As Mr. Happy Sunshine says @18, the current total comes out as a 79% turnout, but he then says "holy crap" about that number. In truth, though, 79% would be extremely low turnout. We had 84.6% turnout in 2008, 82.2% in 2004 (from a spreadsheet downloaded from here). Sherril Huff says King County has 985,000 ballots in-hand, which translates to around 84% turnout, a bit above 2008 in the county ... and more ballots will arrive today.

3) All that said, it would require an astonishing, absolutely unprecedented "late ballot" effect to produce a win for McKenna. It's more conceivable to envision a win for Drew or No on I-1240, but the hurdle is still very high in both cases.
24
Look. People mailed in their ballots.

They may not arrive until today.

Anything else anyone says is just ... speculation.

And informed speculation says it's over. And King County and other blue areas turned out massively. When everyone votes, we win.
25
Washington, your elections are starting to look as inept as Florida's. Not good.
26
@21 Here's how I define "early" vs. "late". All of the ballots that arrive as the close of business the Friday before election day, plus some of those that arrive on Monday, plus all the votes at from the accessible voting machines, are tallied as an undifferentiated clump on election night. These are the "early" votes.

All the rest of the ballots are "late."
27
I still don't get what the rush is. Speaking of Florida, I'd rather votes be counted correctly than counted fast.
28
As of 12:46pm 11/9/12 there have been 2,410,638 votes for governor, and there are 575,016 more expected votes on hand to be counted (97.2% of an estimated 591,487 ballots on hand remaining to be processed). One would need 1,493,827 votes to win, including a +2,000 vote lead to stave off a recount. Inslee would need 45.39% of the expected remaining votes on hand to win, and also avoid a recount. McKenna would need 54.96% of the expected remaining votes on hand to win, and also avoid a recount.

These figures are just a mathematical snapshot based upon available information at vote.wa.gov. The snapshot will change every time more ballots either arrive, or are counted. I'm actually not using a spreadsheet, just paper and a calculator. Old school.
29
@25 - Um, inept how? Washington has a tradition of doing it slow, but doing it right. It worked for pot, it worked for marriage, and you can fuck off. :)

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