OLYMPIA, Wash. — It could be more than a month for several Washington state races to be decided, including one that was on every ballot in the state.
According to tallies as of Friday afternoon, state Senate and House races in the 10th, 17th, and 18th districts are within a percentage point and hundreds of votes, potentially qualifying for mandatory recounts.
A Benton-Franklin County judge position race was separated by less than 400 votes.
The Washington Supreme Court seat 2 also remains too close to call.
Friday afternoon Sal Mungia was leading Dave Larson by 9,000 votes, 49.91% to 49.58%, still out of the range for a recount.
State law requires machine recounts when a race is decided by less than half a percentage point and the difference is less than 2,000 votes.
In a statewide race, a hand recount is mandated if the difference is less than .25 of a percent and 150 votes.
"Pins and needles and stomach acid. Sleepless nights, high blood pressure. You name it, I've got it,” said Sal Mungia, one of the hopefuls for the open Supreme Court seat.
The attorney of more than 40 years said he has no regrets in his first political campaign.
“You always go back, and say, 'Oh man! Should we have put more resources in certain counties?'" said Mungia.
Larson, his opponent, said the race is not over.
“It's a roller coaster,” said Larson, “I'm at peace either way."
Both candidates said their campaigners are contacting voters whose ballots were rejected, mostly for signature issues.
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, more than 40,000 rejected ballots are considered “curable” and can be added to the tallies if voters resolve their ballot’s issue.
Voters can check the status of their ballot at vote.wa.gov.
"I encourage people to look and see if they did get something saying their ballot was rejected to see if there's a way to make sure their vote is counted,” said Larson.