South County Politics: Baylor, Sackett headed for recount as order flips in school race

Cathy Baylor

Edmonds School Board candidates Cathy Baylor and Cindy Sackett appear to be headed for a recount for a chance to face Deborah Kilgore in November for an open position on the Edmonds School District 15 board.

Returns posted Friday showed Kilgore with 44.12 percent of district votes to 27.65 percent for Baylor and 27.63 percent for Sackett. That marked the first time that Baylor had been in second place. Sackett had held second both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Cindy Sackett

The top two vote getters in the primary advance to the Nov. 7 general-election ballot.

State law requires a recount when the difference between two candidates is less than 0.5 percent of the two-candidate total and a hand recount when the difference is less than 0.25 percent. The Friday difference of three votes was 0.02 percent.

With Sackett’s total standing at 6,133 votes and Baylor’s at 6,136, the percentages would be based on a two-candidate total of 12,269.

A machine recount means running ballots through machines again. A hand recount means having pairs of counters look at all ballots to determine voter intent.

Snohomish County officials reported counting ballots from 23.83 percent of registered county voters through Friday, compared to an expected 25 percent voter turnout. The turnout in the Edmonds School District through Wednesday was 22.93 percent.
County elections officials plan to post updated returns at 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 9, and regularly through final certification of results Aug. 14.

The Edmonds School District includes Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Woodway, part of Brier and unincorporated areas near those communities.

Regional Fire Authority passing by comfortable margin but with low voter turnout

Voters in the City of Lynnwood and in unincorporated areas of Snohomish County Fire District 1 were clearly approving formation of a regional fire authority in ballots from the Tuesday election counted through Friday.

At least the voters who turned in ballots approved the proposal.

Voter turnout was 16.55 percent, and those voters were approving it by a 54 percent to 46 percent margin.

 

— By Evan Smith

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.

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