LFP Council candidate French widens lead over incumbent Councilman Sterner

By Evan Smith

Lake Forest Park City Council challenger Tom French widened his lead over incumbent Councilman Ed Sterner Friday in the closest of the three Lake Forest Park Council contests on the Nov. 8 general-election ballot.

Election returns posted Friday showed that French had widened his lead to 80 votes from his 75-vote lead reported Thursday. French had 50.59 percent of the vote Friday to 49.01 percent for Sterner. His Thursday lead had been 50.55 percent to 49.04 percent for Sterner.

French’s expanded lead remains out of 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 Friday with 2,563 votes to 2,483 for Sterner.

With a combined total of 5,046 votes, 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.

Of the 5,854 ballots cast in Lake Forest Park, 788 left the position blank, and 20 cast write-in votes.

French had lost to Councilman Robert Lee in 2009. 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 55.20 percent to 44.60 percent margin, and candidate Jeff Johnson led opponent Chuck Paulsen by a 51.35 percent to 48.35 percent margin for the Council position that Deputy Mayor Dwight Thompson gave up to run for mayor.

Stanford is seeking a second four-year term.

Thompson was trailing former Councilwoman Mary Jane Goss in the race for mayor by a 52.58 percent to 47.11 percent margin.

Voter turnout in Lake Forest Park was 62.22 percent through Friday, compared to the King County average of 50.90 percent.

The votes were part of a King County voter turnout of 50.90 percent, compared to an expected final turnout of about 52 percent. Officials had counted almost 98 percent of the expected final number of ballots through Friday.

County elections officials had 8,000 uncounted ballots on hand at the end of the Friday business day.

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.