Dave Upthegrove ends an evening of ballot counting in second place for the first time
If Washington’s 2024 Top Two election ended right this second, Democratic contender Dave Upthegrove would be one of the finalists for the November runoff.
That wasn’t the case on Election Night, or Wednesday night, or last night, but tonight, it’s a statement we can make, for on this fourth day of tallying, Upthegrove got a big enough bounce in the late ballots — especially from King County — that he was able to keep the second place spot once all counties tabulating ballots today had uploaded their totals to the state. (Some of the smaller counties don’t do daily tabulations.)
You can see that Upthegrove is now 4,446 votes ahead of one of the two Republicans:
Upthegrove’s breakthrough is a huge relief for Democrats, who were facing the possibility of being locked out of the general election, with two Republican candidates advancing. It’s a scenario NPI that has been warning about for the better part of a year, beginning in November of 2023 and again several times this year, most recently at the end of last month, when our Top Two preelection survey fielded.
https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2024/08/dave-upthegrove-ends-an-evening-of-ballot-counting-in-second-place-for-the-first-time.html