LFP Council candidate French holds lead over incumbent Sterner

By Evan Smith

Lake Forest Park City Council candidate Tom French continues to lead incumbent Councilman Ed Sterner in the closest of three LFP Council contests on the November 8 general-election ballot.

Sterner cut French’s lead to 68 votes in the Wednesday, November 23, vote count from the 77-vote lead that French held Friday, November 19.

Still, the margin between the two candidates remained out of the range for a mandatory recount.

State law requires a machine recount if two candidates are separated by less than 0.5 percent of their combined total and a hand recount if two candidates are within 0.25 percent of the two-candidate total.

With French having 2,595 votes to 2,527 for Sterner, their combined total of 5,122 means that a margin of 25 votes or fewer would trigger a machine recount, and a margin of 12 votes or fewer would trigger a hand recount.

Out of 5,954 ballots counted from Lake Forest Park, 812 left the position blank, and 20 had write-in votes.

King County officials plan to release updated returns Monday, November 28, before certifying the election Tuesday morning, November 29, and posting final results the next day.

The County still has 700 uncounted ballots on hand and will accept ballots returned for signature verification through Monday. The countywide turnout is 51.95 percent, compared to the expected final turnout of 52 percent.

Voter turnout in Lake Forest Park is 63.29 percent.

In other LFP Council contests, incumbent Councilwoman Catherine Stanford leads opponent Brian Cathcart 55 percent to 44 percent, and candidate Jeff Johnson leads opponent Chuck Paulsen 55 percent to 44 percent for the position that Councilman Dwight Thompson is giving up to run for mayor.

Thompson is trailing former Councilwoman Mary Jane Goss in the race for mayor, 52.5 percent to 47.2 percent.