King County Elections certifies hand recount for 5th Legislative District seat

The King County Elections (KCE) office is declaring Mark Mullet the victor over Ingrid Anderson for Washington’s 5th Legislative District seat for the state Senate after a hand recount.

A ballot’s journey at King County Elections headquarters

Hand recounts like this are required when the vote total difference between two candidates is less than 150 votes, and less than 0.25% of the total number of votes cast for both candidates.

Prior the hand recount, there was a 57-vote difference between the two Democrats. The recount gave Mullet, the sitting senator, one more vote, putting him up 58 votes against Anderson.

Just over 97,000 ballot bubbles were filled out in the race, which has now been certified. The results were certified Wednesday during the canvassing board meeting and livestreamed from KCE’s Facebook page.

Two other requested recounts have now been certified, one of which was certified with Legislative District 5, and the second in the Rose Precinct certified on Dec. 8.

KCE certified 2020 general election results in November, and Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman certified the statewide results on Dec. 1.

Washington Secretary of State Wyman certifies 2020 election results

The county elections office reports that out of 1.4 million registered voters in King County, 87% turned out this election, breaking the last record of 85% in 2012. This year over 909,000 (73.9%) voters returned their ballots to ballot drop boxes, with more than 307,000 (24.98%) returning by mail and over 13,500 (1.1%) by email/fax. A little over 10,000 (0.85%) ballots were rejected for signature issues, and 707 (0.06%) were returned too late, making up just 0.91% of total ballots.

Follow @http://twitter.com/Mynorthwest