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On a cloudy Tuesday morning, 21 poll workers sat at tables in pairs, cutting open plastic bags of ballots and sorting them under the names of each candidate in the race for public lands commissioner. Then, with gloved hands, the pairs counted each ballot and wrote the result on a piece of paper with a green marker.

Officials in Whatcom County and elsewhere across the state are conducting a manual recount of votes after a 51-vote margin in the state presidential election, in which more than 1.9 million Washingtonians voted. The recount will determine who will face the leading candidate, Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, in November’s general election.

The only noise in the courthouse basement was the sound of the air conditioning and the shush of ballots being sorted. When the couples finished counting their group of ballots, they raised their hands and either the Whatcom County auditor or her deputy came over to reconcile the hand count with the counter’s count.

In the room, reporters and six observers heard Whatcom County Auditor Stacey Henthorn tell the pairs, “OK, you’ve found a match,” before pulling another set of ballots and announcing the group to the room.

Henthorn would then take the counted ballots to the other side of the room and seal them again.

The mandatory manual recount was triggered by the narrow lead of Dave Upthegrove, a King County council member, over Suehl Pederson, a Republican-backed candidate.

State law requires a recount if the difference between the candidates is less than 2,000 votes and less than 0.5%. The Commissioner of Public Lands clears this hurdle with the difference of 51 votes, which is 0.0064% of the total vote difference.

If Upthegrove maintains his lead, he will face Beutler, a former U.S. representative for Washington’s 3rd District (Southwest Washington), in November.

The recount began at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 26, and lasted until 5 p.m., Henthorn said. On the first day, Whatcom County election officials processed about 33,000 of 73,000 ballots.

At the end of Monday, none of the hand-counted ballots deviated from the results of the count, Henthorn said.

“This is a test of the system to make sure it matches exactly,” she said.

On Tuesday, election officials began at 8 a.m. and Henthorn estimated they would stay until 5 p.m., with a break for lunch. Election officials will continue the recount throughout the week unless they finish sooner.

Henthorn said she saw more observers in the counting room for the manual count than for the primary count.

“I guess people are more interested in the manual count,” she said. “Or maybe they trust the Whatcom County Election Board.”

The election for public lands commissioner is the first recount of a primary election since 1960 and the closest race in the history of the Washington primaries, according to the State Department.

The last time there was a mandatory manual recount in Whatcom County was in the 2018 general election between Doug Ericksen and Pinky Vargas for the 42nd Legislative District Senate seat.

Ericksen won the seat by just 45 votes. Two years later, Ericksen died of COVID-19 after testing positive for the virus in El Salvador.

Henthorn said the recount shows how important it is for registered voters to participate in the primary election, in which the top two candidates advance to the general election.

Seven people ran for land commissioner, two Republicans and five Democrats. According to the Seattle Times, about 57% of voters cast their ballots for a Democrat.

Once the recount is complete and Upthegrove maintains his lead or Kuehl takes Pederson, the County Auditor’s office will go to work finalizing the general election voter guide, which will be sent to registered voters throughout Whatcom County detailing the races and the candidates running.

According to the Department of State, ballots for the general election will begin to be mailed on October 18. Ballots must be received in the Auditor General’s office or dropped in a ballot box by 8 p.m. on November 5.

Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice and business reporter; she can be reached at [email protected]; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.