Murray's lead edges higher on big King County turnout

[usregimechange]

UPDATE 6:06 p.m. Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray slightly widened her lead over Republican challenger Dino Rossi as counties statewide counted about 148,000 more ballots this afternoon.

Murray now leads 50.8 percent to Rossi's 49.2 statewide, and the gap widened by more than 10,000 to a 24,834-vote margin for the 18-year incumbent Democrat.

Murray is benefitting from a 71 percent voter turnout in King County, a record for a midterm election. King County Elections had predicted 68 percent turnout, which would equate to about 720,000 votes, but the county has now received a total of 762,000 ballots as votes poured in through the mail today...

King County still has about 345,000 votes to count, and will be releasing results of an addition 65,000 ballots on Thursday, said King County Elections director Sherril Huff...

University of Washington political science professor Matt Barreto said Murray won 66.9 percent of the votes counted today, versus 62.1 percent counted yesterday.

"Any suggestion of a Rossi trend is not true at all," said Barreto. "The King County numbers are devastating for Rossi."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politicsnorthwest/2013339644_murray_lead_in_king_county_gro.html


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