Washington’s first “Top Two” primary is now in the books (at least the voting part of it), and for all the hype and predicted madness, the event actually turned out to be — for the most part — craziness free.



While craziness is usually appreciated in the news business, for the sake of voter clarity and smooth elections come November the relatively action-less “Top Two” primary on Aug. 19 is probably a blessing. The lack of craziness likely means voters and election workers fully understood the new process, and despite the fact very few races appear headed for a same party battle in November — as had been predicted — the new system seems to have worked as designed.



“It wasn’t that big of a deal,” said one Pierce County voter shortly after mailing her ballot on Tuesday. “It didn’t seem confusing to me.”



In a primary that produced very few surprises, most races looked to be going down as expected as of Wednesday morning. Gregoire, according to the early numbers, was maintaining a 3 to 4 percentage point lead over Rossi (stats which, naturally, both candidates claimed as success); John Laddenburg and Rob McKenna were neck and neck in attorney general voting; and Republican Allan Martin and Democrat Jim McIntire were poised to move on in the battle for state treasurer — both fending off Democratic challenger Chang Mook Sohn.



A sleep deprived Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy weighed in on the action so far on Wednesday afternoon — the sound of ballot counting audible in the background.



“Turnout at the polls wasn’t quite what we expected, but we got a lot of ballots in the mail today. We were expecting turnout to be around 43 percent. It wasn’t as robust at the polls as we anticipated, but I think with the mail-in ballots we’ll come pretty close to what we expected,” says McCarthy. “We’ll count ballots as long as we have them.”



After running her ballot counting operation into the wee hours of Wednesday morning — 3 a.m. to be exact — McCarthy and her crew were back at work at 7 a.m. For those playing at home, that’s about a 4-hour nap — at best. It’s dedication needed considering McCarthy estimates Pierce County elections staff counted roughly 77,000 ballots yesterday, and taking today’s mail load into account, nearly the same amount of ballots remain in house waiting to be counted as of Wednesday afternoon.



“We’re on it,” says McCarthy. “It’s a huge operation, ‘i’ dotting and ‘t’ crossing. The whole system has worked fabulously.”



One of the most important aspects of Tuesday’s primary, at least in McCarthy’s estimation, was the training it provided for November’s full-blown election — which will be more difficult than normal thanks to the institution of Ranked Choice Voting. Roughly 600 people make up Pierce County’s election staff — from the cadre of 13 workers on McCarthy’s staff to the hundreds of paid volunteers — and the action in August is just a precursor of bigger things to come in November.



“The polls were well staffed for the primary, and it was good to get a lot of people trained for November,” says McCarthy. “Pierce County will be well served for the general election because of it. The more people you get involved, the better elections work. That’s good for us because it lets people see our world.”



For now, that world is one of the sleepless vote-counter. Stay tuned to www.weeklyvolcanospew.com for more primary results as they become official.