Lt. Gov write in Joshua Freed (Facebook)
Lt. Gov write in Joshua Freed (Facebook)
loading...
John McKay
John McKay
loading...
John McKay
John McKay
loading...

The theory was, with a third candidate on the ballot as a write in, their chances of winning would improve because they would only have to get maybe 40 percent of the vote.

Former Bothell Mayor Joshua Freed, who came in second behind Loren Culp in the August primary, became the subject of a write-in campaign. Across the state GOP leaders urged voters to write him in against Democrats Denny Heck and Marco Liias. Liias is a former Seattle area legislator, Heck a former Legislator. and Democratic "big wig."

The reason there were 2 Democrats on the general is because the 4 GOP Lt. Governor candidates cancelled each other out in the primary.

While Freed did well in Benton and Franklin County, 33 percent in Benton to Heck's 37 and actually 'winning' Franklin 37-34 percent over Heck, he did not fare well statewide.  Freed also won six other counties, including Adams, Grant and Garfield.

But in King County, he only got 9.3 percent, well below Heck's 40 plus. Statewide, Heck won the Lt. Governor's race over Liias 47-33 percent, with Freed getting just over 19 percent of the vote.

While a lot of effort was made at various rallies to "write him in to win," many other GOP voters said they were not aware of the campaign.

Write in candidates usually face a very tall order, there's only been a handful who've actually succeeded in WA at the Congressional or state level in the last 30 years.

Some wonder if the 530K ballots still to be counted as of about noon Wednesday will make a difference, that depends upon how many are write in, and how many have Freed on them.  But based upon Heck's lead, even if Freed picked up every single one, he still would not have enough to win the seat.

More From 870 AM KFLD