WA’s early election results repeatedly marred by technical glitches

At 8 p.m. every election night, candidates, consultants and other politics watchers obsessively click on the Secretary of State’s website, waiting for the first vote tallies to roll in.

But in some recent elections — including on Tuesday — those initial vote counts have shown wildly inaccurate percentages in some closely watched races.

The glitches have typically been resolved within several minutes. Still, they’ve been glaring errors at the exact moment when the most eyes are on the state’s election-results website.

The issue is even more perplexing as Secretary of State Steve Hobbs’ office has been on notice for more than a year about the recurring election night glitches, but has failed so far to fix them.

When it comes to election night, Hobbs’ office has one main job. So what give