Race for Washington’s 5th Congressional District heating up

SPOKANE, Wash. — The race for Washington’s 5th Congressional District is heating up. As of Wednesday evening, the Spokane County Elections Office announced that incumbent Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a republican, had 44.25 percent of the vote while Lisa Brown, a democrat had 50.93 percent of the vote.

“This race is far from over but i feel good. We’ve got a very competitive race,” Brown said.

Incumbent Republican candidate Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers said at her primary party Tuesday “this is a significant step in the campaign.”

Typically, primary elections typically see 30 percent of voters cast their ballots at most, but yesterday some 45 percent decided to make their voices heard.

“We’ve seen turnout just skyrocket,” shared Spokane County auditor Vicky Dalton.

Dalton said it isn’t just the congressional House race that’s getting people to vote, it’s thanks to the simplicity of prepaid envelopes.

It’s created quite the long list of tasks for election workers.

“Once we get it, we sort it, verify that signature is in fact the voter’s signature,” added Dalton.

And that’s all before the envelope is even opened.

A total of 45 percent of voters means 140,000 ballots. Already, close to 80,000 have been tabulated. There’s still 40,000 or so to go.

“It was just a staggering number. 22,000 ballots were dropped in to our white bins Tuesday,” she shared.

KXLY 4 News was at election headquarters Wednesday as some of those thousands were delivered and workers began pulling ballots to get the final number.

“We are processing every single step today that can possibly be done,” Dalton said.

They hope to finish the majority of ballots Friday, but we will still have to wait two weeks for the official numbers.

Even though this is an extremely close race, both Cathy Mcmorris Rodgers and Lisa Brown said last night they are keeping their same strategies up until November.

For McMorris Rodgers, it’s talking about her record. For Brown, it’s traveling to continue meeting voters all throughout Eastern Washington.

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