Election results to date: November 21, 2023 - Kenmore council candidates are 70 votes apart

By Diane Hettrick

A reminder that you can register with King County Elections for notifications that your ballot was received, and was counted. At the same time, you can sign up for alerts and reminders.

Here is the sign in page to get started: Fill in 3 of the 4 fields on this form and Submit.

Latest results as of November 21. Only one race, Kenmore council Pos #5, is possibly in play.

Kenmore city council - Challenger Jon Culver is now 70 votes ahead of incumbent David Baker.

Pos 5:

• Jon Culver        3,088
• David Baker     3,018

I have seen close races but not since paper ballots has one been this close.

I checked in with King County Elections a couple of days ago to see how close a race has to be to trigger an automatic recount and referenced the Kenmore council race.

According to Communications Officer Halei Watkins "Mandatory recounts are triggered at certification - November 28 for this election. The thresholds vary a bit between statewide contests and all other contests. 

"Here’s what they are for local candidates:

• For all candidate races and statewide ballot measures:  Mandatory machine recount must be less than 2,000 votes AND also less than 1/2 of 1% of the total number of votes cast for both candidates
• For all other candidate races:  Mandatory hand recount must be less than 150 votes AND also less than 1/4 of 1% of the total number of votes cast for both candidates

"There are no mandatory recounts for local ballot measures.

 

"It’s important to note the ‘AND’ in the threshold as it’s typically the percentage portion that knocks contests out of mandatory recount range. 

• Looking at the Kenmore City Council Pos. 5 race, there are 6,094 votes cast for both candidates. The difference of 72 votes puts it a little over 1% of the total votes cast for both candidates, meaning it would not require a mandatory recount if we certified today."