Prepaid postage, a crowded U.S. Senate race and female and first-time candidates were a few things to watch in the Aug. 7 primary election results, the first wave of which was posted at 8:04 p.m. Tuesday.

Washington votes by mail and ballots can be postmarked as late as Election Day, meaning results could change in the following days. Washington also uses a top-two primary; all candidates run on the same ballot regardless of party affiliation and the top two finishers advance to the general election.

About 316,460 ballots were counted and 30,318 still needed to be processed in King County as of Tuesday’s results. On Wednesday, 361,707 ballots were counted, with 40,525 in the queue.

Incumbents, Democrats and women did well in initial returns.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell drew 28 challengers, and received 66.67 percent of the vote in King County in initial returns. She will face Republican Susan Hutchison, who received 19.61 percent, in the Nov. 6 general election. Statewide, Cantwell received 55.26 percent of the vote as of Aug. 8, and Hutchison tallied 23.94 percent.

In the 9th Congressional District, Democrat and incumbent Adam Smith was leading his challengers, receiving 50.26 percent of the vote. Republican Doug Basler tallied 26.25 percent and Democrat Sarah Smith earned 23.49 percent on election night, but as of Aug. 10, Sarah Smith was leading Basler by about 200 votes, and as of Aug. 13, she led by about 2,500 votes (earning 26.6 percent to Basler’s 24.76 percent).

On the legislative side, Rep. Tana Senn, a Democrat from Mercer Island, led challengers Nathaniel Deily and Tim Cruickshank in the 41st District House Position 1 race with 63.08 percent of the vote. Cruickshank, a Republican, tallied 34.95 percent and Deily, a Libertarian, will exit the race, having only received 1.98 percent.

Democrat Wendy Weiker of Mercer Island, Democrat My-Linh Thai of Bellevue and Republican Michael Appleby of Bellevue signed up to run for Position 2, which was left open after the retirement of Rep. Judy Clibborn. Thai was in the lead with 41.63 percent, followed by Appleby with 33 percent and Weiker with 25.37 percent.

King County Prop. 1, a property tax levy for automated fingerprint identification system services, was passing, receiving 56.09 percent of the vote on Aug. 7.

See www.kingcounty.gov/elections for more results. King County Elections will post updates at 4:30 p.m. each week day until the final certified results are posted on Aug. 21.