It’s official: Percentage-wise, Initiative 517 is Tim Eyman’s biggest-ever defeat

While we won’t have final num­bers until the 2013 gen­er­al elec­tion is cer­ti­fied in a few weeks, we can say that as of today, Ini­tia­tive 517 ranks as Tim Eyman’s biggest-ever defeat, per­cent­age-wise. The vote against 517 statewide con­tin­ues to climb, pro­pelled by an incred­i­bly strong no vote in King, Pierce, and Sno­homish coun­ties, which a super­ma­jor­i­ty of Wash­ing­to­ni­ans call home.

As I explained yes­ter­day, the old record was 61.55%, set against Eyman’s I‑892 in 2004. (I‑892 was a scheme to expand gam­bling and use the rev­enue gen­er­at­ed from gam­bling tax­es to reduce prop­er­ty tax­es. It tanked big across the state).

The new record will prob­a­bly be between 62% and 63%. I say “prob­a­bly” because the no vote against I‑517 is at 61.74% now, but is like­ly to keep on climb­ing in the days ahead, since that’s all it has been doing so far.

Once it stops, we’ll know what the new record will be. For now, we can say I‑517 is Eyman’s biggest defeat, per­cent­age wise.

In relat­ed devel­op­ments, Grant Coun­ty has switched its alle­giance to the No side. 50.53% of votes cast in Grant Coun­ty (home to Moses Lake and sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties) are against I‑517 as of today. Grant is the only coun­ty to have flipped in either direc­tion thus far. There are nine coun­ties in favor of I‑517 and thir­ty opposed. Sev­en of the nine are in east­ern Washington.

Coun­ties bor­der­ing the Sal­ish Sea are reject­ing I‑517 by much more lop­sided mar­gins than the oth­er coun­ties in the no col­umn. King, Thurston, and San Juan are the most opposed to I‑517, fol­lowed by Jef­fer­son, Sno­homish, Island, and Pierce. East of the Cas­cades, Whit­man’s no vote is the most impres­sive, at 58%.

(Whit­man, home to Wash­ing­ton State Uni­ver­si­ty, is the east­ern Wash­ing­ton coun­ty that most often sides with the Demo­c­ra­t­ic strong­holds of King and San Juan on bal­lot mea­sures… some­times even when Sno­homish and Pierce don’t).

We are incred­i­bly pleased to see that I‑517’s defeat is only grow­ing in size and scope. The peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton have spo­ken loud­ly and clear­ly in reject­ing Tim Eyman’s self-serv­ing attempt to make the ini­tia­tive busi­ness more profitable.