ELECTIONS 2024: In Republican turnaround, Johnson and Muzzall win reelection

Jessie Stensland reports on the 2024 elections for the Whidbey News-Times.

A red shift in votes counted after Election Day caused turnarounds in two important races affecting Whidbey Island.

In the end, the incumbents in county government and the state legislature representing the island will remain in office, despite millions of dollars being spent in campaign efforts.

Two Republicans will win the election despite being behind after the first count of ballots. Island County Commissioner Jill Johnson and state Sen. Ron Muzzall, both of Oak Harbor, benefited from a conservative trend in ballots turned in during the later days of the mail-in election period.

They Said It

After being behind by 6% in the first count to Democratic challenger Christina Elliott, [Johnson] admitted that she held out little hope of making a comeback.

Before the election, Muzzall predicted the scenario playing out…. Nevertheless, Muzzall said it’s a nerve-wracking experience.

“It’s incredibly frustrating because you’re sitting there waiting for the numbers and it takes days,” he said. “It drives you crazy.”

Muzzall and other politicians are unsure why conservative voters tend to turn in or mail in their ballots in the last days of the election period.

Muzzall said he’s asked Republican voters why they do this.

“I get all kinds of answers,” he said. “None of them is what I consider to be rational.”

Tim Hazelo, the chair of the Island County Republican Party, said that conservative voters are “a stubborn group” who tend to adhere to the tradition of voting on Election Day.

“I’ve been telling people to vote early,” Hazelo said.

Johnson said the large swing in her race may have been due to other factors beyond the conservative trend of voting late. She said Oak Harbor voters, who represent her stronghold, were dealing with the tragedy of the two Navy pilots dying in an accident, so voting early may not have been a priority.

“What I cared most about was winning in District 2,” she said. “It’s nice to know that your home district feels like you represent them well and they overwhelmingly supported my reelection. So that was the win that I continue to value.”

Both Johnson and Hazelo opined that many people who vote later spend more time learning about the candidates.

“Because we couldn’t tell the full extent of the votes left to be counted on election night, it was impossible to understand the probability that things could change,” she said. “When the late votes started coming through … which is typically the less impulsive more researched vote, I did much better.”

In addition, Johnson said she did late advertising.

State Rep. Dave Paul, an Oak Harbor Democrat, agreed that the trend is clear, but he can’t explain it.