After watching his slim lead over opponent Aaron Laing grow even slimmer for several days in a row, progressive activist John Stokes is finally rebounding.
The contest between Stokes and Laing (who is backed by Kemper Freeman, Jr.) to succeed Grant Degginger has captured the region’s attention due to its closeness.
Stokes’ lead increased by twenty-nine votes in today’s count, going from fifty-nine to eighty-eight. That’s not as wide as it was at one point last week (or even on election night) but as far as his campaign team is concerned, it’s certainly progress.
Stokes’ percentage of the vote now stands at an even fifty, while Laing’s percentage diminished slightly to 49.70%. Oddly enough, the number of write-ins for Position #1 (0.25%) is exactly equal to Stokes’ lead… eighty-eight.
King County Elections will release updated counts four more times before November 29th, when the canvassing board will convene to certify results. Final results will be posted on November 30th — however, results for this race are unlikely to be final, because it’s probable that the margin of victory for whoever wins will be so small that an automatic recount will be triggered.
So it’s unlikely that we will know who has won for sure until well into December.
The results of Bellevue’s other city council races are not in doubt, and will become final on November 30th. Incumbent Jennifer Robertson ran unopposed, and has been reelected, while incumbents Claudia Balducci and John Chelminak (who each drew one challenger) won in a landslide.
One Comment
I am hoping for a Stokes victory, as the time has come to fight dirty hit pieces.