WA Election Night Results 2022: Secretary Of State

SEATTLE — Democrat Steve Hobbs and independent Julie Anderson are competing for the Secretary of State's office — Washington's chief elections officer and the second in the line of succession for governor.

Longtime Republican incumbent Kim Wyman stepped down late last year to accept an appointment in the Biden administration and Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Hobbs to fill the role. He is on the ballot looking to stay on for the last two years of Wyman's term, facing a challenge from Julie Anderson, the current Pierce County Auditor, who is running as a nonpartisan.

Catch up on other races around Western Washington:

• Patty Murray Leads Tiffany Smiley
• Seattle & King County Ballot Measures
• King County Prosecutor's Race: 2022 Election Night Results

Polls in October showed the pair roughly tied among voters, with a large portion of the electorate still undecided. As Axios reports, some in the state Democratic party have cast Anderson as a conservative. Last week, her campaign launched a television ad criticizing Hobbs as having a less-than-progressive record during his time in the state Senate.

On election night, Hobbs led by about three points. State officials estimated there were nearly 635,000 ballots left to process across Washington after election night.

Here's where things stand on election night:

• Steve Hobbs (D): 49.97% (834,206 votes counted)
• Julie Anderson (NP): 46.92% (783,268 votes counted)

Tuesday's first returns do not reflect last-minute ballots, and the tallies will change daily as more votes are counted. In Washington, ballots returned in the last two days of the voting period can make up more than half of the total. The Secretary of State's office estimated there were 634,848 ballots left to process across the state after election night.

Readers can find the latest results for races across Washington on the Secretary of State's website.