Evan Smith: Hall, Roberts, McGlashan, Tracey win in Shoreline

By Evan Smith
ShorelineAreaNews Politics Writer

Incumbent Shoreline City Councilman Keith McGlashan and newcomers Will Hall, Christopher Roberts and Shari Tracey all won Shoreline City Council elections when King County certified results Tuesday, Nov. 24,
 
Roberts won the most lopsided and surprising victory, taking 59 percent of the vote to 40 percent for 14-year incumbent Councilman Ron Hansen. More than 3,000 Shoreline voters left this position blank on their ballots, and 65 cast write-in votes. Roberts won by 2,826 votes.
 
Planning Commission Chairman Hall scored a comfortable 54 percent to 46 percent victory over Patty Hale for the position now held by Councilwoman Janet Way, who had finished third in the August primary. Way then threw her support and that of the 32nd District Democrats to Hall, who had finished second to Hale in the primary. Again, the 2,535 undervotes and 55 write-in votes exceeded Hall’s 1,214-vote margin. An undervote is a ballot returned with no vote marked for a particular contest.
 
The closest Shoreline Council election was challenger Shari Tracey’s 50 percent to 49 percent victory over incumbent Councilwoman Cindy Ryu. Tracey won by 183 votes, with 2,054 undervotes and 43 write-in votes.
 
McGlashan, the only incumbent elected, won 79 percent of the vote against write-in candidate Wendy DiPeso. We’ll never knew how many votes DiPeso won because officials count write-in votes only when the number of write-in votes plus undervotes is enough to affect the election.

The high number of undervotes in both Shoreline and Lake Forest Park indicates that many people voted in the high-profile State and County contests and skipped the down-ballot local elections.
 
Here are final Shoreline election results: