Democrat Pat McCarthy still leads the race for Pierce County executive in the latest ranked-choice voting election returns released late Friday, but her margin was shrinking.

The latest results showed that McCarthy would defeat Republican Shawn Bunney by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent on ballots counted through Friday. In a similar tally on election night, McCarthy’s lead was 55 percent to 45 percent.

An estimated 106,000 ballots remain to be counted, so the results are just a snapshot of how the race stands.

In other ranked choice voting results:

 • Republican Joyce McDonald seemed poised to win the County Council District 2 seat over two Democrats, Al Rose and Carolyn Merrival. The latest tally showed McDonald leading over Rose, 54 percent to 46 percent, thanks to second-place votes from some Merrival supporters.

 • The nonpartisan assessor-treasurer’s race remained too close to call. Friday’s tally showed Dale Washam edging Barbara Gelman by a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent. But with six candidates for this office, the outcome remained unpredictable.

 • In County Council District 3, incumbent Republican Roger Bush was pulling away from Democratic challenger Bruce Lachney, 51 percent to 48 percent.

If Bush and McDonald are both elected to the council, Republicans would have five seats on the seven-member council. That would give the party a “supermajority” able to overcome the veto of the county executive.

Friday’s results gave Pierce County residents their latest taste of what ranked-choice voting means for county elections.

The new system did away with primary elections for most county offices. Instead, voters ranked a host of candidates for county executive, council, sheriff and assessor-treasurer in order of preference on the general election ballot.

In some races – sheriff and some council seats – candidates appear to have received a majority of first-choice votes. Those candidates will win, just as in a traditional election.

But in three races – county executive, assessor-treasurer and Council District 2 – it appears no candidate will win a majority of first-choice votes.

In that case, the winner is determined via a process of elimination. The candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. If the eliminated candidate was your first choice, then your vote shifts to your second choice. If your second choice is eliminated, then your vote shifts to your third choice.

The process of eliminating candidates and redistributing votes continues until one candidate gets a majority of votes.

In the executive’s race, Bunney leads with about 34 percent of first-choice votes. McCarthy is second (27 percent), followed by Democrat Calvin Goings (23 percent) and independent Mike Lonergan (15 percent).

Late Friday, elections officials ran computer software that eliminated candidates and redistributed second- and third-choice votes. Under that tally, Lonergan and Goings were eliminated, and McCarthy beat Bunney.

The new tally showed that McCarthy was the second choice of many Lonergan supporters and of a big majority of Goings supporters.

The results are not final, and no candidate will be officially eliminated until all votes are counted.

McCarthy, who as county auditor oversees elections, wasn’t ready to declare victory. She stressed earlier Friday that the results are just a snapshot.

The Auditor’s Office will continue to release tallies of first-choice votes daily next week. But it won’t run the software that takes second and third choices into account until next Friday.

David Wickert: 253-274-7341

blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics

REICHERT PREVAILS

Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert has won re-election in Washington’s 8th Congressional District, defeating two-time Democratic challenger Darcy Burner in a close race.

With almost 80 percent of the expected vote counted from Tuesday’s election, Reichert’s lead was nearing 8,000 votes Friday. Roughly 270,000 votes have been tallied.

After a bruising and expensive campaign, Reichert successfully held off a strong run by Burner, who was challenging the former King County sheriff again after losing to him by just 3 percentage points in 2006.

The Reichert-Burner race was the state’s only competitive congressional race. Combined, both candidates raised more than $5.8 million.

The 8th District sprawls through the suburbs and rural communities of eastern King and Pierce counties.

The Associated Press