The 380-vote margin between two Democrats vying for a south Tacoma state House seat will become official Tuesday morning when the Pierce County Canvassing Board certifies the Aug. 4 primary results.

The board meets at 10 a.m. Aug. 18 at the Pierce County Elections Center, 2501 S. 35th St., Suite C, in Tacoma. The meeting is open to the public and includes a comment period, according to a Pierce County notice.

Certification locks in which candidates advance to November across all Pierce County races. The tightest contest on the ballot: the 29th Legislative District, Position 1 race, where challenger Krista Perez leads incumbent state Rep. Melanie Morgan by roughly 380 votes in unofficial tallies as of Aug. 13. Both candidates are Democrats, and because they are the only two in the race, both advance to the general election regardless of the margin.

The certification comes five days after the Tacoma City Attorney's Office filed DUI charges against Perez in Tacoma Municipal Court. According to charging papers filed Friday, Aug. 14, Perez, 40, drove her pickup truck into a parked car in the 3700 block of South G Street near Lincoln High School shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Aug. 11, causing a chain reaction that damaged three other cars. Police said she smelled of alcohol, had slurred speech and an unsteady gait, and failed to provide an adequate breathalyzer sample, which police labeled as a refusal.

Perez was booked into Pierce County Corrections at 7:33 a.m. that day and released six hours later after posting $1,000 bail. Her arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 18.

Her defense attorney, Bryan G. Hershman, told the Washington State Standard on Friday, Aug. 14: "We're talking about a DUI. It's not like we're talking about felony murder here."

The 29th District covers most of south and east Tacoma, Parkland, Spanaway and parts of Lakewood. Morgan has held the seat since 2019 and counts Gov. Bob Ferguson among her endorsers. Perez, a strategic partnerships manager at the state Department of Commerce, ran unsuccessfully for Tacoma City Council in 2025.

What happens next

The Canvassing Board, composed of the Pierce County Auditor, Pierce County Council chair and county prosecuting attorney (or their designees), must complete certification before the state's Aug. 21 deadline. A final certification report will be posted at PierceCountyWA.gov/Elections after the meeting.

Residents who want to attend or comment can arrive at the Elections Center before 10 a.m. Tuesday. Elections Manager Kyle Haugh can be reached at (253) 798-2146 for questions about the process.