Though final results are still some way from being posted, the primary election for the position of King County Executive has already pushed two candidates clearly to the fore, with Susan Hutchison and Dow Constantine the clear leaders after the counting of mail-in votes on Tuesday.

The purpose of the primary election is to narrow the field down to two candidates for the main election in November.

As of just before 10 p.m. Tuesday night, 182,036 ballots had been counted, which represents just over 16 percent of the 1,090,964 registered voters in King County.

Hutchinson had tallied 65,917 votes, or 37.37 percent of the counted vote.

Constantine had 39,536 votes, 22.41 percent of the total.

Fred Jarrett is currently a distant third, with 21,228 votes, 12.04 percent.

Larry Phillips is running fourth, with 20,681 votes, 11.73 percent.

Ross Hunter was trailing Phillips in fifth place, with 19,213 votes, 10.89 of the counted total.

Results from mail-in votes and voting sites will continue to come in over the next few days, with an official announcement made on Sept. 2.

For all intents and purposes, the public will know well before then who they will chose between come November.