Certified primary results show Thurston voters felt the Bern

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump were named winners when the Thurston County Canvassing Board met Tuesday to certify the county’s results in the 2016 Presidential Primary Election, held May 24.

In the Republican primary, where half the party’s delegates were at stake, candidate Donald Trump received 17,355 votes or 73.7 percent. John Kasich received 2,496 or 10.6 percent, making him Trump’s closest competitor in Thurston County.

There were 434 write-ins, accounting for 1.8 percent.

On the Democratic side, where the results were not used for delegate allocation, candidate Bernie Sanders received 18,006, or 51.6 percent of the county’s vote, while now-presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton received 16,809 votes, or 48.1 percent. There were 103 write-ins accounting for 0.25 percent.

Statewide, Clinton was the winner of the primary, but Sanders received the most support from earlier caucuses, which allocated delegates.

Results showed that 35.1 percent — or 58,523 people — among Thurston County’s 166,885 registered voters cast a valid ballot.

Compared to the 2008 primary — the last presidential primary conducted in the state, because none was held in 2012 — the total number of registered voters increased by 32,725, but the total valid ballots decreased by 12,000.

There were 586 voter discrepancies that resulted in ballots being thrown out. Of those, 579 were returned with a vote for both parties, or voters registered with one party and voted for the other. The remaining seven ballots were returned blank.

The number of discrepancies is usually fewer than 10, according to Tony Wickie, a Thurston County election technician.

“It was a lot of Republicans that said, ‘Yes I’m a Republican’ on their envelope, but they’re actually voted on a Democratic ballot,” Wickie said. “You’d never see numbers like these.”

This story was originally published June 8, 2016 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Certified primary results show Thurston voters felt the Bern."