The trailing candidate for an open Washington state Supreme Court seat is urging voters to check that their ballots have been accepted as he looks to close the gap in a race that remains tight more than a week after Election Day.
As of Friday morning, Sal Mungia, a trial lawyer, was leading Dave Larson, a Federal Way judge, by about 22,000 votes, or roughly 0.7%. As Mungia’s lead grows, Larson and the state Republican Party have put out daily calls online for voters to check if their ballots have been challenged and not counted as a result and to take required steps to fix, or “cure” any problems.
Though the race is nonpartisan, Mungia has backing of Democrats and progressive groups, and Larson has the support of Republicans and conservative activists.
The gap between the two candidates has grown significantly. The day after Election Day, Larson led Mungia by about 1,000 votes. As of Friday morning, about 67,912 ballots statewide were left to be counted.
“We can win this one if we get everyone we know to check their ballot status so that their vote for Judge Larson can count,” Larson wrote on X this week. “It really matters in a close election like this one.”
According to the secretary of state’s website, there are about 39,500 challenged ballots across the state that can still be fixed. Most of those are held up because people’s signatures on their ballots do not match their voter registration information.
About 30,000 of the challenged ballots are due to unmatching signatures, another 8,200 are unsigned ballots, and more than 600 don’t have a signature on file. Voters with challenged ballots have until Nov. 25 to fix the issue with their county elections office.
Mungia’s campaign and state Democrats are also doing ballot curing work, but with Mungia’s growing lead, they aren’t doing many public callouts like Larson.
The state party is working on curing ballots for all of their supported candidates, State Democratic Party spokesperson Stephen Reed wrote in an email. “We believe that Sal Mungia is in a very strong position and that he will be a terrific addition to Washington’s State Supreme Court.”
Although the gap between the two candidates is close, it’s still currently above recount range.
State law requires a machine recount when the difference between candidates is less than 2,000 votes and also less than half of 1% of the total number of votes cast for both candidates. A hand recount is mandated when the difference between the top two candidates is less than 150 votes and also less than one-quarter of 1% of the total votes cast for both candidates.
The winning candidate will go on to replace Justice Susan Owens who will retire at the end of the year. Washington State Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms and face mandatory retirement at age 75.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven González and Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud are also up for reelection this year but were running unopposed.
Mungia is a trial and appellate court lawyer who has experience as a former law clerk for the state Supreme Court and as the former president of the state bar association. He had the endorsement of eight of the nine current justices, Gov. Jay Inslee and other Democratic elected officials across the state. He also had some outside financial support from progressive groups like Fuse and the 45th Legislative District Democrats.
Larson is a judge for the Federal Way Municipal Court, where he’s served for 16 years. He also spent 23 years as a trial attorney. During his time as a trial lawyer, Larson was active in the state and local bar associations. Larson has the endorsement of the Republican Party as well as some financial backing from Republican activists.