Voters are favoring Dow Constantine, Reagan Dunn, Beau Burkett, Ron Smith and Brandon Green for Plateau-area races, based on updated Friday vote counts from the Aug. 3 primary.
Click here for live King County results, and click here for live Pierce County results.
King County Executive
In the race for County Executive, Incumbent Dow Constantine will face State Sen. Joe Nguyen in November.
Constantine had taken a commanding 52.5 percent of returns, with Nguyen taking 31.7 percent. Third place went to Bill Hirt with 11.1 percent.
Combined, the other candidates Goodspaceguy and Johnathon Crines took 4.3 percent of the vote. About half a percent of voters opted for write-in candidates.
Nguyen may present the most serious challenge to Constantine since the incumbent took office 12 years ago.
The Executive office oversees operations and funding for key county organs like public health, law enforcement and courts, natural resource management and King County Metro and Sound Transit. It’s also behind much of the region’s approach to addressing homelessness.
Nguyen has raised about $176,000 in his bid to unseat Constantine. He’s said county leaders have been too slow to address issues like the racial wealth gap, bias in policing and the local homelessness crisis.
Constantine received the endorsement of the Seattle Times and has raised more than $1.6 million. He’s identified pandemic recovery and the expansion of behavioral health services, transit and housing for homeless people as key goals.
King County Prop. 1
Voters have approved Proposition 1, which was previously approved by the King County Council as Ordinance 19267, to renew funding for programs helping kids and families.
61.9 percent voted to approve the measure. The vote total was 252,237 for, 155,432 against.
The proposal renews and expands a six-year property tax levy beginning in 2022 to fund prevention, intervention and capital investments for services like child care, family services, youth development programs, homelessness prevention and social, emotional and mental health support.
The property tax would begin in 2022 at $0.19 per $1,000 of assessed value. The 2022 levy amount would be the base for calculating annual increases of up to 3 percent through 2027.
City of Buckley Mayor
A difference of six votes is so far keeping Richard O’Neill in the running to be the next mayor of Buckley.
Beau Burkett, earning 563 ballots or 56.5 percent of the vote as of Friday, easily took first in the primary and will be on the ballot this November.
But the race for second place remains tight. O’Neill had received 193 votes by Friday, and current city councilmember Marvin Sundstrom had 187.
Pierce County estimated there were 100 ballots county-wide left to count as of Friday, meaning O’Neill’s second-place victory is likely but not guaranteed. The election results are certified on Aug. 17.
Gabrielle Abbott, meanwhile, took fourth with 50 votes, or 5 percent, in Friday numbers.
Buckley City Council
In Position 1, Ron Smith took a massive lead with 658 votes, or 67.7 percent of the Friday return. Sean Wilson took second with 171 votes (17.6 percent) and Jason Burnett took third with 139 votes (14.3 percent.)
For Position 7, Brandon Green was ahead with a titanic 78.2 percent of the vote. Donovan Colt Torp will be the other challenger, with 13.2 percent of the primary vote, while Greg Stanfill took 7.8 percent of the Friday tally.
