Washington State's Top Two Primary

• The two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary and receive at least 1% of the votes cast qualify for the general election.
• Each candidate for partisan office may state a political party that he or she prefers. A candidate's preference does not imply that the candidate is nominated or endorsed by the party, or that the party approves of or associates with that candidate.
• To trigger a mandatory machine recount, the difference between the top two vote-getters must be less than 2,000 votes and less than 0.5% of the total number of votes cast for both candidates.
• To trigger a manual recount in a statewide election, the difference between the top two vote-getters must be less than 1,000 votes and less 0.25% of the total number of votes cast for both candidates.

Write-in note: If there are not enough total write-in votes to overcome the apparent winner, officials do not tally individual write-in candidates. Only if there are enough total write-in votes in the race to change the apparent outcome will the election officials begin a tally for the declared write-in candidates.

2026 Elections Calendar from the Washington Secretary of State.