Lands commissioner recount taking place

DAVENPORT — Election officials were poised to hand count ballots Thursday, Aug. 29, in the race for state lands commissioner.

According to Lincoln County Canvassing Board Chairwoman Chandra Schumacher, the recount was slated to begin at 10 a.m. in the county commissioners office, 450 Logan St.

Certification of the results was expected to follow.

The newspaper went to press before the recount started.

The hand recount was ordered by the Secretary of State after the second- and third-place candidates had vote tallies that were within less than a quarter of 1 percent.

Seven candidates were vying for the job to oversee publicly owned lands managed by the state Department of Natural Resources.

Unofficially at press time, Jaime Herrera Beutler, a career politician who was unseated from congress after voting to impeach former President Donald J. Trump, led the race with 419,297 votes, or 22.03%.

Only 51 votes separated Dave Upthegrove,a Western Washington Democrat and Sue Kuehl Pederson, a Lakewood Republican.

Upthegrove was in second place with 396,300 votes and Pederson third with 396,249 votes.

Only the Top 2 candidates advance.

Pederson was the top candidate in Lincoln County, receiving 1,547 votes, or 40.09%. Beutler was second here with 1,457 votes, or 37.76%.

Upthegrove only received 144 votes in Lincoln County, or 3.73%. He was fifth in Lincoln County, trailing both Pederson and Beutler, as well as Democrats Allen Lebovitz and Patrick DePoe.

Lebovitz had 274 votes, or 7.1%, and DePoe had 202 votes, or 5.23%.

Nearby, Pederson also won Spokane and Stevens counties.

Upthegrove did not win a single county in Eastern Washington, and only won three counties west of the Cascades.