Evan Smith: Where are DiPeso’s votes?

By Evan Smith 
ShorelineAreaNews Politics Writer

Records show that Shoreline City Councilman Keith McGlashan has been re-elected with nearly 79 percent of the votes cast for Council Position 1, but they don’t show how much of the other 21 percent went to write-in candidate Wendy DiPeso.

I had been under the impression that County elections officials counted all votes for write-in candidates who had registered their candidacies.

Now I’ve learned that officials count write-in votes only if the number of write-in votes plus undervotes was enough to affect the outcome.

County records show 2,762 write-in votes and 5,098 undervotes for Position 1. That total of 7,860 is 2,412 votes fewer than McGlashan’s 10.272, a difference of 13.3 percent of the 18,132 ballots cast in Shoreline, far greater than the 0.25 percent required for a mandatory hand recount.

I’d like to know how many of the write-in votes were for DiPeso, and I’m sure that she would want to know how many votes she got for the $21,072 she reported raising and the $16,802 that she spent.

However, King County has other demands on the $4,500 cost of looking at all 18,132 ballots.

I’d like to know DiPeso’s vote total, but not at that cost.