Democrat Pat McCarthy still leads Republican Shawn Bunney in the race for Pierce County executive in results released late Friday.

But McCarthy’s lead continues to shrink, and the race remains too close to call.

In another key race, Dale Washam still leads six candidates for assessor-treasurer. The latest results show him beating runner-up Barbara Gelman.

In the latest results, Bunney continues to lead all candidates for county executive, gaining 35 percent of first-choice votes. McCarthy has 26 percent, followed by Democrat Calvin Goings (23 percent) and independent Mike Lonergan (15 percent).

But under the county’s new ranked choice voting system, Bunney would need a majority of first-choice votes to win the election outright, and he’s far short of that.

Under the new system, if no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. If your first choice is eliminated, your second choice gets your vote. If your second choice is eliminated, your third choice gets your vote.

The process of eliminating candidates and redistributing votes continues until someone has a majority of votes.

The county auditor’s office uses computer software to eliminate candidates and redistribute votes. In Friday’s calculation, Lonergan and Goings were eliminated, and McCarthy beat Bunney by a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent.

But McCarthy’s margin continues to shrink. In a similar tally on election night, she won 55 percent to 45 percent. In a tally Nov. 7 she won 52 percent to 48 percent.

The latest tally is not official, and no candidate will be eliminated until every vote is counted. Election workers still must process about 17,500 ballots.

The auditor’s office won’t run the ranked choice voting calculation again until next Friday. By then, a winner may become apparent.

Meanwhile, the latest results for assessor-treasurer show the contest coming down to Washam vs. Gelman, with Washam winning 52 percent to 48 percent.

However, this race remains too close to call. Though Washam has about 25 percent of first-choice votes, three candidates – Gelman, Terry Lee and Jan Shabro – have about 19 percent of votes each. The three are within 132 votes of each other.

It’s clear no one will win a majority of first-choice votes for assessor-treasurer, so this race will be decided by many voters’ second and third choices. With no clear second-place candidate, this race may well come down to the last votes counted. Stay tuned.

And that goes for the Libertarians, too.

The Secretary of State's office is asking a federal judge to dismiss the three political parties' challenge to the Top Two primary election since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it's OK.

Here is the
court motion.

Top 2 Update: State seeks end to parties' primary challenge

FYI: The state of Washington is asking U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly to dismiss the political parties’ remaining legal challenges to the state’s voter-approved Top 2 Primary, Initiative 872. Secretary of State Sam Reed and the people of Washington are represented by Deputy Solicitor General Jeff Even. Reed, who has urged the parties to drop their continuing legal challenge of a popular system that voters approved in 2004, applauded the latest move and said he hopes the judge will agree that voters deserve some finality and certainty after years of litigation.

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