CONTACT:
Mary Hall, Thurston County Auditor 
elections@co.thurston.wa.us  
360.786.5408 
711 Washington Relay

OLYMPIA – The Thurston County Canvassing Board certified the Thurston County portion of a statewide mandatory manual recount in the Public Lands Commissioner race.

Vote counts did not change for candidates Dave Upthegrove and Sue Kuehl Pederson in Thurston County. One undervote changed to a vote for candidate Patrick DePoe.

Prior to the recount, Upthegrove and Pederson had been separated by 51 votes statewide. A statewide race triggers a manual recount when the difference between the two candidates is both less than 1,000 votes and less than ¼ of 1% (.0025).

Election results are available at ThurstonWaVotes.gov

“I love hand recounts because they validate our tabulation equipment, our processes and our ballot inspection team,” said Mary Hall, Thurston County Auditor. “No votes changed between candidates, and we had only one vote change from an undervote to a candidate. One ballot out of 88,000 is pretty impressive. I am very proud of my team.”

Two-person counting boards hand-tallied ballots in each of Thurston County’s 287 precincts. Those totals were checked against machine counts by a separate two-person verification board. This process is codified in WAC 434-264.

Thirteen observers attended to watch the recount in person.

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