Initial results for the Nov. 4 general election arrived Tuesday night and voters in the 5th legislative district were favoring Republican state house incumbents Jay Rodne and Chad Magendanz over challengers Essie Hicks and David Spring. U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert was likewise ahead of Jason Ritchie.
In the race for state legistative district No. 5’s first representative position, Rodne was leading Hicks with more than 58 percent of the King County vote.
In the race for the district’s second representative position, Magendanz led Spring with nearly 59 percent of the county vote.
U.S. Congressional District No. 8 showed similar figures for Reichert, who was leading Ritchie with more than 59 percent of the county vote.
Ritchie conceded the race in a statement issued Tuesday night.
“While the results of this year’s election are not what we hoped for, this fight is not over,” Ritchie said in his speech. “I’m going to be working with the people of this district every step of the way the next two years and I am committed to running again in 2016.”
Initiative 1351, mandating smaller class sizes, was seeing a close race on the first night. The measure was failing by just under 50 percent statewide. But King County voters were showing a slight preference for the measure at more than 53 percent.
Initiative 591, blocking state-to-local controls on firearms sales, was failing with more than 45 percent of statewide “Yes” votes. In King County, fewer than a third of ballots counted supported the measure.
On the flipside, Initiative 594 requiring background checks on private firearm sales was passing with more than 60 percent statewide. Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters of King County ballots supported the measure.
By Wednesday at the Reporter’s press time, King County voters had turned out at 31.34 percent while 32.59 percent turnout had been seen statewide. Washington is a mail-in election state and ballots continue to be counted. Any new ballots will be counted over the next three weeks until the election is certified Nov. 25.
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