For position on primary ballot, the number 9 is the new No. 1

By Evan Smith

The number 9 is the new No. 1 for any candidate who wants the top spot on primary-election ballots and voters’ pamphlets in King County.

A computer-generated random-number draw at the county elections office in mid-May created this order for ballot position: 9-3-8-1-7-4-5-2-6.

Here’s how it worked for the race for an open position on the Seattle Port Commission, one of two positions tied for most crowded in the county with nine candidates:

Candidate Darrell Bryan got No. 9, which made him No. 1 after the countywide draw.

In a general election after a primary, the candidates will appear in the order they finished in the primary. In a general election that had no primary because it’s a non-partisan office with only two candidates, the order would follow the lot-draw order.

In the Ronald Wastewater District, which is primarily in King County but has a few voters in Snohomish County, candidates will appear in the computer-generated order that King County uses because King County has the larger share of the voters.

Each county can choose its own form of lot draw. Snohomish County, for example, draws letters, making an alphabet of B-H-W-F-K-A-U-R-P-C-Y-X-V-E-S-Z-M-Q-G-D-O-I-N-L-J-T, putting a candidate named Bhat at the top of the ballot and a candidate named Tjit at the end.

That makes ballot order in Snohomish County a matter of B-H-W and in King County a matter of 9-3-8.