Some hap­py news to report tonight: Ini­tia­tive 1351, which man­dates low­er class sizes in Wash­ing­ton’s pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools, is final­ly pass­ing after hav­ing trailed on Elec­tion Night and in yes­ter­day’s count.

After King Coun­ty fin­ished tab­u­lat­ing and report­ing a fresh batch of bal­lots (its sec­ond count of the day), I‑1351 went from los­ing to win­ning. What for­tu­itous tim­ing! Just a few hours ago, Tim Eyman had sent out an email to the media crow­ing about the ini­tia­tive being down. But now it’s prevailing!

Here’s where things stand now:

Yes on I‑1351: 810,243 votes (50.14%)
No on I‑1351: 805,583 votes (49.86%)

This means the Yes side has a fair­ly slim 4,660 vote lead.

Spokane Coun­ty has flipped into the Yes col­umn, a day after Sno­homish Coun­ty flipped to No. Sno­homish is still No, but not by much.

What accounts for the change? In a few words, late bal­lots from more pop­u­lous coun­ties. The more sparse­ly pop­u­lat­ed rur­al coun­ties are vot­ing I‑1351 down by sig­nif­i­cant mar­gins. For the most part, those coun­ties have few bal­lots left on hand to process, so their influ­ence on the result is waning.

The pop­u­lous coun­ties, on the oth­er hand, still have plen­ty of bal­lots to tab­u­late. King Coun­ty alone has 132,042 bal­lots still to work through. Pierce Coun­ty has 21,000; Sno­homish has 78,000, and Spokane has 26,000.

If the trends hold, we project a win for the Yes on I‑1351 coali­tion. It won’t be a land­slide vic­to­ry, but it will be a vic­to­ry nonetheless.

Coun­ties where I‑1351 is win­ning include King and San Juan (reli­able Demo­c­ra­t­ic strong­holds), along with Jef­fer­son, Kit­sap, Pierce, Spokane, What­com, Grays Har­bor, and.… wait for it… Asotin! It’s very unusu­al to see King and Pierce in an alliance that does not include Sno­homish Coun­ty, but, there you have it.

Sno­homish and Mason are bare­ly in the No col­umn, and Sno­homish might just flip back before the elec­tion is cer­ti­fied. We’ll have to see.

Oth­er coun­ties that are some­what close but still No are Skag­it and Thurston.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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One reply on “Initiative to lower class sizes in Washington now passing by a slim margin”

  1. 50 years ago, Wash­ing­ton elect­ed a Repub­li­can gov­er­nor in the same year as the LBJ land­slide, so we have a his­to­ry of buck­ing nation­al trends.

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