SPOKANE, Wash. – As of Friday evening, Sarah Dixit leads over incumbent Jonathan Bingle by 53 votes. But elections are not certified, and there are currently 10,000 ballots left to count in Spokane County.
Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton oversees the election process and says she is familiar with the intricacies of tight election races, which can lead to recounts.
“Other than King County, I think we’ve done more recounts than any other county in the last 20 years,” Dalton said. “Spokane County is the queen of recounts.”
The Washington Secretary of State outlines the rules that trigger a mandatory recount.
A machine recount is mandatory when the difference between the top two candidates is less than 2,000 votes and also less than 0.5% of the total votes cast for both candidates. A manual recount is necessary when the difference is less than 150 votes and less than 0.25% of the total votes.
If a recount is needed, Dalton said it will all take place after the election results are certified.
“The regular election will be certified on November 25th,” Dalton said. “At that point, we have to go through a process of public notice and then preparing the ballots to be recounted, and that can take anywhere from 3 to 10 days.”
While not all 10,000 ballots left in Spokane County come from District One voters, vote counts will almost certainly be adjusted in the coming days.
Because the election isn’t certified, Dalton said it is too early to say if the District One race will require a recount.
NonStop Local reached out to both Bingle and Dixit on Friday afternoon before the day’s ballot count was announced to discuss the close race.
“There’s still a lot more work left to do, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure that every voice is heard, every vote is counted,” Bingle said. “There’s still more ballots to be dropped yet.”
“We know that every election year, district one tends to be the lower voter turnout because we have the lowest voter registration numbers as well,” Dixit said. “And especially with it being a non mayoral not presidential year, it’s exciting to see those numbers grow.”
