Today is Election Day. Ballots have to be postmarked today or dropped off at a ballot collection station, in our case, at City Hall.

Three City Council positions are up for election: 2, 4 and 6. Sammamish Comment recommends Christie Malchow, Ramiro Valderrama and Tom Hornish respectively. Previous posts detail why.

In Washington State, we vote principally by mail. Accordingly, the final results won’t be certified for two weeks, but trends are known quickly. In fact, having been involved in every election of this City since the 1998 vote for Incorporation, history proves that the final result doesn’t vary more than 1% or 2% from Election night results.

Thus, unless the Election night is too close to call, the result then should tell us what the final result will be.

The County posts election counting on Election night around 8:15pm. Thereafter, results are posted every weekday around 4-415pm, sometimes a bit earlier.

Sammamish turnout in an odd-year election is typically 40%-45%, but as noted last week, City Council races are “down ballot” and voting drops off.

Sammamish Comment will post tonight’s ballot counting as soon as the County does. The Comment will have a bare-bones report of the results. On Wednesday, The Comment will have a full analysis of the results and a report of the second day of ballot counting. Updates of the counting will continue at least for the first week.

After the election results are certified, Sammamish Comment will do a race-by-race, precinct-by-precinct analysis.