Marcie Maxwell of Renton is “cautiously optimistic” that her comfortable lead in her race for a seat in the state House of Representatives will hold and she’ll head off to Olympia in January.

Wednesday’s afternoon tally, released at about 2:30 p.m., showed Maxwell with a 53 percent to 47 percent lead over Steve Litzow of Mercer Island in their 41st District race following Tuesday’s general election.

Those percentages have remained fairly steady but could change. That also was the margin of victory for Maxwell over Litzow in the August primary election.

“We are cautiously optimistic,” Maxwell said today. “It looks good.”

Maxwell and her family and campaign team have put in 11 months of “hard work” to get to today, she said.

“We have run a good positive campaign,” she said. “I am pleased the voters are supporting me.”

King County will release another tally at 11:30 p.m. today. The county will continue counting ballots, mostly absentees, through Nov. 25, when it is expected the election results will be certified.

As of election night about 70 percent of the nearly 61,000 absentee ballots issued to voters in the 41st District had been returned, but it’s unknown how many of those have been counted.

King County Elections’ director Sherril Huff estimated today that 357,600 mail ballots are on hand countywide and remain to be counted.

Maxwell, a Realtor and member of the Renton School Board, is a long-time community and business leader in Renton.

If she wins a seat in the House, she said she will resign her seat on the School Board to devote her energies to the 41st District. She has one year left in her second, four-year term on the board.

“It’s going to take plenty of time and effort,” she says of a term in the House. “I want to do the best job for Renton and all the 41st District.”

Mayor Denis Law said today he’s “very pleased” with the election outcome.

“Marcie is a quality leader in this community who will really represent the 41st District and especially Renton’s portion of it very very well,” he said.

It has been a “long time” since Renton has had a state legislator who lives and works in Renton to represent the city and its citizens in the Legislature, he said.

Law also lauded the work on behalf of Renton by longtime 11th District state Sen. Margarita Prentice of Skyway, who easily won re-election over fellow Democrat Juan Martinez.

While Maxwell waits for more returns, Gov. Christine Gregoire declared victory Tuesday night in what was expected to have been a close race with Republican Dino Rossi.

In the 8th Congressional District, incumbent Republican Dave Reichert came from behind in early returns with the help of Pierce County votes to make it a foot race with challenger, Democrat Darcy Burner. Mid-afternoon today, Reichert had 50.18 percent of the vote, to Burner’s 49.82 percent.

A statewide initiative that could have had public safety implications for the City of Renton – Initiative 985 – was easily defeated. Had it passed, the initiative, which sponsor Tim Eyman claimed would ease traffic congestion, would have diverted revenue to the state from the Renton’s red-light camera program. Likely, because of that, the city would have ended that program, along with a its school-zone speeding program.

Election results

The lastest county election results are available at kingcounty.gov/elections. The latest statewide results, including initiatives, governor and Congress, are available at http://www.secstate.wa.gov/. In the 8th Congressional District the most accurate results are only available as the state web site because the district includes both King and Pierce counties.