Wednesday’s Ballot Drop Is Here

We have more ballots and more votes! But not many. For any big, or really any noticeable, changes, we’ll have to wait for tomorrow’s ballot drop and Friday’s. Those will have a trove of election day ballots. But here’s what’s up.

We’ve got our eye on whether Dems win a supermajority in the state House, where their majority before the election sat at 59-39. They need 66 for a supermajority, so seven wins, but until we get bigger ballot drops later in the week it’s a tough call to make.

One of the more interesting of the districts that could flip to the Democrats is over in the Yakima Valley, and which didn’t get much attention this year (outside these parts). As of the latest ballot drop from Yakima County, two Democratic challengers to the long Republican rule in LD 14 have increased their margins slightly. Challenger Chelsea Dimas now leads Republican incumbent Rep. Gloria Mendoza by about 11 points, and Democrat Ezequiel Morfin now leads Rep. Deb Manjarrez by 12 points. LD 14 is awkwardly drawn due to court orders meant to empower Latino voters in one of the few communities where they are in the majority in Washington, meaning votes have to be counted in this week across four counties before we know if farmworker-aligned Dems will usurp Republicans who represent the interests of the planters.

Republicans gave mixed signals last night on their chances of victory in the 14th. Manjarrez told the Yakima Herald-Republic last night that she is “very disappointed” and “wanted to keep representing my district,” while state GOP Chair Jim Walsh said the 14th was a district Republicans expect to “grind out wins.”

Back to the center of the universe—King County—around 65,000 new ballots have worked their way into the vote totals. This is a pathetic little drop compared to what’s to come tomorrow and Friday (bigger, heftier ballot drops). Right now, King County Elections has voter turnout pegged at 55.5 percent, but according to spokesperson Halei Watkins, that number is expected to climb as they keep processing ballots.

There is really nothing up in the air exclusively in King County, however. Rebecca Saldaña continues to trounce Toshiko Hasegawa for the pleasure of representing King County Council District 2. Rep. Gerry Pollet is domming Will Dreher in North Seattle. And the voters clearly didn’t like nurse Ashley Fedan enough to boot out Israel apologist David Hackney, who is running away with it in the 11th LD. Rep. Amy Walen is still losing to Jessica Forsythe for opposing the Millionaires Tax. LD 32 is split between King and Snohomish counties, and as of now, Rep. Cyndy Ryu is still winning the race to unseat Sen. Jesse Salomon by a few hundred votes, and Danica Noble is still ahead of Keith Scully for the House rep slot. This is all Democrat-on-Democrat violence.

If only we alone could decide the fate of the terrible anti-trans ballot initiative. Have you looked at the Seattle Times map of the voting data? We here in King County are an island of “no” on that issue in a sea of transphobia (although shoutout to Jefferson County, whose small population voted against transphobia at a higher rate than us).

On that note, the trans sports ban initiative has stayed mostly the same—the yes votes are still leading. The Millionaires Tax repeal is still sucking rocks and so is the revival of the Parents’ Bill of Rights.