Election 2019 results: What’s been decided in Seattle and Washington state, and what’s in the air

Voters in Seattle and Washington state had a long ballot in front of them in this year’s election. Affirmative action, car-tab fees that fund transportation projects, all seven Seattle City Council district seats … It was a lot to keep track of.

The election felt somewhat like taking the temperature of our changing political climate. But then, at the end of the night, it seemed Seattle voters were mostly uninterested in significant change, Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat writes.

Nationally, eyes were on key races in swing states and Republican strongholds for clues to what could happen in the 2020 presidential election. Women — most of them Democrats and many of them women of color — made gains across the country. In Kentucky, a Democrat has declared victory in a close race for governor, although the Republican incumbent has not conceded. Democrats will control Virginia’s government for the first time in 26 years. And a cyclist who lost her job for making an obscene gesture toward Trump’s motorcade won a county seat representing his golf club.

In case you haven’t been glued to a screen watching the local results take shape as more ballots are counted — or if you’re wondering just what it all means — here’s where things stand after the latest vote tallies. (Results will be updated after each round of ballot counting. Another batch is set to be released at 4 p.m. Tuesday.)

• Car tabs: Perennial initiative filer Tim Eyman gave a “victory speech” 15 minutes before the ballot deadline Tuesday night. The $30 car-tab measure is winning, and legal fights are already brewing as local officials worry about cuts to Sound Transit and other transportation spending.
• Affirmative action: Referendum 88 is again trailing after a wave of King County votes bolstered the measure Friday, briefly putting it in the lead. As votes continue to stream in over the coming days, the remaining math for affirmative-action advocates looks increasingly difficult.
• Seattle City Council: Kshama Sawant took the lead over challenger Egan Orion after Friday’s vote counts. Her lead of nearly 4 percentage points is a dramatic comeback from election night, when she was trailing Orion by about 8 points. The two other incumbents have substantial leads. Five of the seven candidates backed by Amazon and the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce are trailing their opponents. This has been the council’s most expensive election.
• King County Council: Councilmember and civil-rights leader Larry Gossett is reflecting on his storied career, with challenger Girmay Zahilay well ahead with 60% of the vote by Friday night. Seattle Times columnist Naomi Ishisaka writes that ageism may have influenced some voters.
• King County Medic One levy: The measure to continue funding emergency services is once again cruising to victory.
• King County elections director and assessor: Incumbents Julie Wise and John Wilson both won reelection.
• Port of Seattle Commission: Sam Cho, a former Obama administration appointee and owner of an export business, prevailed in a hotly contested race against former Bellevue Mayor and City Councilmember Grant Degginger, who conceded after Thursday’s results dump.
• Seattle School Board: Leslie Harris and Chandra Hampson appear to have won their respective races, and Liza Rankin is ahead of her opponent. The results mark the culmination of another election cycle where most incumbents on the seven-member board opted out of running again.
• Bellevue City Council: Incumbents for three seats are leading, and Jeremy Barksdale is ahead in the race for the only open seat.
• Medina property-tax increase: Voters in the rich Eastside enclave are split over whether to raise property taxes to fix a projected $500,000 budget deficit. The measure was narrowly passing by 23 votes Friday, after days of trailing by a small margin.
• In other close Eastside races, the candidates in a Redmond City Council race are separated by 19 votes. After trailing incumbent Hank Myers earlier this week, Varisha Khan took the lead Friday. If elected, Khan would be among the first Muslim women voted into local office in the state.
• Redmond and Renton: Both cities are about to seat new mayors.

Read more local updates and analysis here, and bookmark our results page for the freshest vote counts all week.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.