Prepaid postage, a crowded U.S. Senate race and female and first-time candidates were a few things to watch in the Aug. 7 primary election results, the first wave of which was posted at 8:04 p.m. Tuesday.

Washington votes by mail and ballots can be postmarked as late as Election Day, meaning results could change in the following days. Washington also uses a top-two primary; all candidates run on the same ballot regardless of party affiliation and the top two finishers advance to the general election.

About 316,460 ballots were counted and 30,318 still needed to be processed in King County as of Tuesday’s results. On Wednesday, 361,707 ballots were counted, with 40,525 in the queue.

Incumbents, Democrats and women did well in initial returns.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell drew 28 challengers, and received 66.67 percent of the vote in King County. She will faceRepublican Susan Hutchison, who received 19.61 percent, in the Nov. 6 general election. Statewide, Cantwell received 55.26 percent of the vote as of Aug. 8, and Hutchison tallied 23.94 percent.

Issaquah and Sammamish voters weighed in on a nationally watched primary contest in the 8th Congressional District, where three Democrats and first-time candidates had been locked in a race to take on Republican Dino Rossi. Rossi received 43 percent of the vote, and at this point will face Kim Schrier, who received 18.82 percent, in November. Jason Rittereiser tallied 17.56 percent of the vote and Shannon Hader received 12.6 percent, according to results posted on the Secretary of State’s website on Aug. 7.

On the legislative side, Republican Dale Fonk signed up to challenge incumbent Manka Dhingra for state senator in the 45th District and received 36.17 percent of the vote to Dhingra’s 63.83 percent. Also in the 45th, Democrat Larry Springer was leading Republican Amber Krabach 67.77 percent to 32.23 percent for state representative, Position 2, while Democrat Roger Goodman was leading Republican Michael Curtis 67.69 percent to 32.31 percent for Position 1.

In the 5th Legislative District, Democrat Bill Ramos was leading Republican Chad Magendanz 53.64 percent to 46.36 percent for state representative, Position 1 and Democrat Lisa Callan was leading with 52.92 percent of the vote. She will face Republican Paul Graves, who earned 45.67 percent, in the general, while Ryan Dean Burkett will leave the race.

Rep. Tana Senn, a Democrat from Mercer Island, leads challengers Nathaniel Deily and Tim Cruickshank in the 41st District House Position 1 race with 63.08 percent of the vote. Cruickshank tallied 34.95 percent and Deily will exit the race, having only received 1.98 percent.

Democrat Wendy Weiker of Mercer Island, Democrat My-Linh Thai of Bellevue, and Republican Michael Appleby, of Bellevue, signed up to run for Position 2. Thai is in the lead with 41.63 percent, followed by Appleby with 33 percent and Weiker with 25.37 percent.

King County Prop. 1, a property tax levy for automated fingerprint identification system services, was passing, receiving 56.09 percent of the vote.

See www.kingcounty.gov/elections for more results. King County Elections will post updates at 4:30 p.m. each week day until the final certified results are posted on Aug. 21.