Oregon Public Broadcasting

Almost all the votes have been tallied in Washington State’s primary election. And the governor’s race is closer than ever.

Not even two percentage points separate incumbent Democrat Chris Gregoire and Republican challenger Dino Rossi. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

After the primary, Democrats were confident Gregoire would ultimately come out with more than fifty percent of the vote and a five to seven percent lead over Rossi.

Instead, with 97-percent of the ballots counted, Gregoire has less than 50-percent of the vote and a narrow lead over Rossi.

Matthew Manweller is a political scientist at Central Washington University. He predicts a super-close race in November as well.

Matthew Manweller: “My prediction is Rossi will be ahead at the end of election night, but it will be close enough that we’ll have to wait to count all these ballots that came in on Wednesday and Thursday morning in King County and both sides will be holding their breath just like it was last time.”

Democrats say lower-than-predicted turnout in Seattle’s King County hurt Gregoire in the primary. They expect she’ll benefit from a big turnout in November for the presidential race.