Two incumbent Kitsap County officials are trailing challengers after the Aug.
Randall's margin was the largest of any contested race on the Kitsap ballot this cycle, and it stands in sharp contrast to what happened one level down the ticket, where two sitting county officials, one Republican and one Democrat, both opened the general-election stretch behind.
A candidate who wins the party's informal ranking and then leads the primary by 16 points arrives at that interview with momentum a commission majority will find hard to ignore, even though nothing on the primary ballot legally binds their decision.
Both are simply starting the general election from behind, in margins narrow enough that local campaigns in vote-by-mail Washington have overcome before, given how many ballots typically remain to be cured or counted after an initial primary-night release.
The state counts mail ballots as they arrive and as signatures are verified, a process that routinely shifts vote-by-mail results by hundreds or thousands of votes over the days following an election, well past the point when initial returns are first released, before county auditors certify the results.
Assessor Phil Cook and Prosecutor Chad Enright are both trailing after the Aug. 4 primary, while county commissioners must name an interim sheriff by the end of August regardless of what November decides.