King County Councilmembers Girmay Zahilay and Claudia Balducci are neck-and-neck in the race for King County Executive, according to poll data from the Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI), a nonprofit public opinion research firm.

Commissioned by NPI and conducted by Emerson College, the survey polled 600 likely voters between October 22 and 27: 37 percent said they’d vote for Balducci (District 5), 35 percent said their guy was Girmay (District 2), and 28 percent didn’t know who they would vote for (District Unknown). Because the survey’s margin of error was +/- 4 percent, the race is a statistical tie. But when undecided voters were shown a sample of each candidate’s voter guide statement, 44 percent picked Balducci, and 31 picked Zahilay. Twenty-six percent still couldn’t make up the

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