At least one race in Spokane County's August primary election is likely headed for a recount. Only two votes separate candidates for the Northeast City Council Districts in their race for that coveted second-place spot.
In the race to represent the open seat in the Northeast district, event business owner Jonathan Bingle came in first with about 46% of votes. Naghmana Sherazi, who works in the diversity and inclusion office at Gonzaga University, and Luc Jasmin, a day care owner, are vying for second with a little more than 26% of the vote each. Sherazi's up by two votes.
Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said a machine recount is triggered if there is less than ½ of 1% difference between the candidates, and a manual recount will be triggered if there is less than ¼ of 1% between them.
“The probability of are count is incredibly high. We’d have to have a separation of 8 votes to get us out of a hand recount, and I think it’s a 19-vote difference to get us out of a mandatory recount. With just a handful of votes left to go in that race, I think the chance of a recount is very high.”
Dalton said it is possible there could be a few more votes out there, if, for example, a voter’s signature didn’t match her signature on file, and they have not returned the paperwork to cure their signature yet.
“If they have received a signature cure letter from us because of a missing or mismatched signature, their ballot could make a difference in a race.”
Dalton said the town of Rockford could also see a recount. One race is separated by only one vote. Due to the small number of ballots, a recount would only be called if there was a tie. There was a total of 105 ballots cast in Rockford for their city council election.
She said voters have until August 16 to resolve any signature issues. The results of this election will be certified on August 17 and the recount will likely occur about a week later.
