LFP Council candidate French opens clear lead over incumbent Councilman Sterner

By Evan Smith

Lake Forest Park City Council challenger Tom French opened a clear lead over incumbent Councilman Ed Sterner Thursday in the closest of the four Lake Forest Park Council contests on the November 8 general election ballot.

Election returns posted Thursday showed French with a 75-vote lead compared to the 64-vote lead reported Monday. French had 50.55 percent of the vote Thursday to 49.04 percent for Sterner.

French’s expanded lead took his lead away from possible recount range.

State law requires a machine recount if the margin between two candidates is less than 0.5 percent of their combined total. It’s a hand recount if the margin is less than 0.25 percent of the two-candidate total.

French led Thursday with 2,505 votes to 2,430 for Sterner.

With a combined total of 4,935 votes, a margin of 24 votes or fewer would trigger a machine recount, and a margin of 12 votes or fewer would trigger a hand recount.

Of the 5,728 ballots cast in Lake Forest Park, 773 left the position blank, and 20 cast write-in votes.

French had lost to Councilman Robert Lee in 2007. Sterner had run unopposed in both 2003 and 2007 after winning with 70 percent of the vote in 1999.

In other LFP Council races, incumbent Catherine Stanford led challenger Brian Cathcart by a 55.24 percent to 44.56 percent margin. Stanford is seeking a second four-year term.

Candidate Jeff Johnson led opponent Chuck Paulsen by a 51.30 percent to 48.48 percent margin for the Council position that Deputy Mayor Dwight Thompson gave up to run for mayor.

Thompson was trailing former Councilwoman Mary Jane Goss in the race for mayor by a 52.55 percent to 47.16 percent margin.

Voter turnout in Lake Forest Park was 60.88 percent through Thursday, compared to the King County average of 50.13 percent.

The Thursday returns came with King County having at least 2.7 percent of countywide votes left to be counted. The County had 15,000 uncounted ballots on hand after counting 542,881 ballots through Thursday.

County officials had counted ballots from 50.13 percent of registered voters. The uncounted ballots on hand bring the County turnout to 51.52 percent, compared to an expected countywide turnout of about 52 percent.

Some other ballots still could arrive at the County elections office in Renton. Some are ballots returned to voters for signature verification. Others are ballots from voters who are out of the country, serving in the military, working, traveling or studying.

King County’s 15,000 uncounted ballots are almost three-fourths of statewide uncounted ballots, even though the County has less than a third of the State’s registered voters.