WA State 2024 Primary Election Update - Discrepancies & Screenshots Explained
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In case you were not aware, there has been come controversy and speculation over the August 6th Washington State Primary Election results posted on the WA Secretary of State (SoS) Website.
When the first official election returns for the August 6, 2024, Washington State Primary were posted on the SoS website (between about 8 pm and 8:40 p.m.), there were zero vote totals on the candidate pages. Also, ballot statistic numbers appeared to have changed, as captured by real-time screenshots, leading some people to immediately question the entire election.
So what happened?
At the time, just under one million ballots were counted. However, not all the ballots that were turned in, had yet been actually counted.
You can see SoS Ballot Return Statistics at this link:
https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/data-research/election-data-and-maps/ballot-return-statistics
The below screenshot from the SoS website shows the ballots turned in on Aug 6, 6 pm, two hours before Primary Night Election results were released:
There were about 1.3 million ballots turned in. But by clicking each county page link, you could see that several counties were late in turning in their received ballot reports. Later on that evening, the same website page showed that 1.6 million ballots were turned in.
Here were the posted results for the WA State Governor race as of 11 pm, Aug 6.
In the above screenshot, the image on the left was taken just before 8:30 pm on Election Night. It shows 1,631,200 total votes but no votes for any candidates. At this time, I happened to be on the phone with * David Spring, reviewing the races and numbers. Mr. Spring clicked on the County Results page and found about 32 of the 39 counties had their results already on the County pages but about 6 counties still had zero results reported; we both witnessed this together.
Meanwhile, the image on the right appears to be taken at 3:20 pm Aug 7, the next day, and shows 990,386 votes for the SoS race. Those posting the images claimed by some that this was proof that over 600,000 ballots were counted and have since gone missing. Some further claim that these 600,000 ballots were all for Semi Bird and thus, Semi Bird had actually won the 2024 Primary Governors Race with a total of 750,000 votes!
There have been a couple of explanations for the 1.6 million vote total in the left image. The first is that some counties may have had trouble reporting their election results. They appeared to be posting their Received Ballots first, as the SoS appeared to be waiting on these counties. We are still waiting on Public Record requests for more clarification.
As for vote total appearing below a list of candidates with no votes, the SOS office claims this was due to a “database error” which caused the results to be posted a few minutes late. By 8:50 pm on Aug 6, the problem was fixed. However, this has not stopped some Bird supporters from continuing to claim the the Primary Election was stolen.
The SoS posting 1.6 million “votes” on Election Night was confusing and misleading, which is another reason why we need a new Secretary of State, however it is obvious there are not now and never were 600,000 “missing votes.” Instead, the 600,000 votes were actually ballots that had been received but not yet counted on Election Night.
Below is a screenshot from last night’s reported results, Aug. 8, at about 6 pm. Bird has gone up one percent and Ferguson has gone down one percent. The total is now 1.521 million ballots counted:
OF NOTE: The total number of ballots that have been accepted is now about 1.943 million (1,521,009 + 422,538).
Per SoS website, 422,538 ballots still are “Estimated Ballots on Hand to be Processed” (counted). SEE MOST UPDATED PRIMARY ELECTION RESULTS HERE
In addition, at least 200,000 more ballots will likely be delivered from the Post Office in the next few days. This delayed result is just one of the many drawbacks of using all mail-in ballots!
In times where people distrust our elections, is is important that when ever any official elections data is posted to the public for viewing that it be as accurate and transparent as possible. Errors and inconsistencies can quickly create an environment of greater public distrust of elections and election results.
A big thank you to David Spring who provided much of the data for this update. * Mr. Spring is an accomplished scientist and computer security expert.
Related links: WA GOP Chairman Calls for Return to In-person Voting
CrossCheck - An Investigative Report
David Spring - Hack Everything Special Report
Bill Bruch
Bill Bruch is the WA State GOP Election Integrity Chairman, WAGOP Executive Board Member, 4-Term Skagit County GOP Chairman, Citizen Journalist, Blogger, Business Owner, “2021 Citizen Activist of the Year” award by the Olympic Conference, 2020 WA State House Representative Candidate, Former Council Member, and WA State 2016/24 RNC National Convention Delegate.