Washington State Election Results Leave Country in Lurch

Washington State election results still aren't complete as we head into day two.  The Washington State election results suffer from the mail-in ballot process, meaning that ballots mailed on the day of the election don't get counted until later in the week.  What this has created is a back-log in ballots that will be counted by their specific counties throughout the week.  As such, the complete Washington State election results might not be known for weeks.

The biggest issue in Washington State right now is who will claim the second U.S. Senate seat.  The race is between incumbent Senator Patty Murray and Republican candidate Dino Rossi.  Late on Tuesday night, the vote still hadn't shown a clear leader, meaning that they weren't even close to declaring a winner in that race.  According to the Washington State election site, they have more than 500,000 ballots left to count.  The two biggest counties in the state will continue their counts on Wednesday evening, meaning the winner might become known at that point.

At the last vote tally, Murray was leading Rossi by about 14,000 votes, or less than a full percentage point.  That is just one of the issues that voters had to decide upon on Washington State though, as there were several ballot measures as well.  One of those ballot measures is a state income tax and another is to allow alcohol sales anywhere in the state.  Those sound like two issues that the state voters need to really put down.  Why would voters want to impose an income tax on themselves, or possibly give legislators the power to raise it later?  Also, allowing alcohol sales all over the state might create more problems than it is worth.

If you are from Washington State, feel free to let us know how you feel about this election.  Are you frustrated it is taking so long to learn results?  Are you happy with the early returns?  The rest of the country certainly wants to know how this race is going to turn out.

Sources: Washington State Election Site and Ballot Measure Results