The dramatic and extremely tight State House race between Republican Jim Walsh of Aberdeen and Democrat Teresa Purcell of Longview appears to be turning into a win for Walsh, who is ahead by 421 votes and likely will be the occupant of the 19th District, Position 1 seat.

Statewide as of 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Walsh has 28,334 votes (50.37 percent) and Purcell has 27,913 votes (49.63 percent).

“I want to see that last batch from Lewis, but I’m a little more comfortable saying I’ve won,” Walsh said.

Walsh said modeling indicated he would win and that the voting patterns in each of the counties should probably hold, possibly even widen by up to a hundred.

Not ready to celebrate “with margins this tight,” he said. “But I can’t wait to get started.”

According to the Secretary of State’s office, a machine recount is required when the difference between the two candidates is less than 2,000 votes and also less than one-half of 1 percent of the total votes cast for both candidates. A manual recount is needed when the difference is just 150 votes and less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the total votes cast for the two candidates.

And right now, the margin between the two candidates is wide enough not to require this type of action.

Lewis County was the only location with a large number of ballots remaining as of late Wednesday afternoon. More than 9,000 ballots were still uncounted but fewer than 1,000 of those were likely to affect the Walsh vs. Purcell result, said Heather Boyer, elections specialist with the Lewis County Auditor’s Office.

In Grays Harbor County Walsh has 2,102 votes (72.71 percent) and Purcell has 789 votes (27.79 percent).

The county isn’t done counting yet — 3,450 ballots remain countywide and a portion of those are for 19th District races. The next update is slated for Thursday afternoon.

Ballot counting slowed down among officials in the five counties within the 19th District this week as the close results for seat shifted gradually from Purcell to Walsh. Only Pacific and Wahkiakum counties are fully within the district while only parts of Grays Harbor, Lewis and Cowlitz counties fall within its borders.

There are challenged ballots — mostly those with no signatures and non-matching signatures — as well as ballots coming to elections officials from longer distances will be arriving within the next two weeks, Boyer also said.

Grays updated results on Wednesday as well. Walsh has 6,558 votes (50.95 percent) and Purcell has 6,314 votes (49.05 percent). District wide there are still many such ballots outstanding. In Grays Harbor County alone there are about 450 such ballots, said Lorie Ochmann, the county’s elections administrator.

Voters who turned in challenged ballots have less than two weeks to make them viable because officials need them back in time for election certification, which occurs on Nov. 29.

Ballots deposited outside the counties where they apply and overseas ballots continue to trickle in as well.

Because multiple counties are within the district, the Secretary of State also certifies the results. This will happen on Dec. 7.