John Stokes wins extremely close election for Bellevue City Council Position #1

It’s over, at last: After a two-day manda­to­ry recount trig­gered by an extreme­ly close final spread in the con­test for Belle­vue City Coun­cil Posi­tion #1, we final­ly have a win­ner: pro­gres­sive activist John Stokes, whose final mar­gin of vic­to­ry end­ed up being just fifty-four votes. That’s less than the pop­u­la­tion of one precinct.

Stokes, a retired attor­ney and edu­ca­tion activist, will take office next month, join­ing Clau­dia Bal­duc­ci, John Chelmi­nak, Kevin Wal­lace, Don David­son, Jen­nifer Robert­son, and Con­rad Lee on the Belle­vue City Council.

Stokes suc­ceeds incum­bent Grant Deg­gin­ger, who announced back in the spring that he would be retir­ing from the coun­cil. Deg­gin­ger sub­se­quent­ly endorsed Stokes for his posi­tion — as did the King Coun­ty Democ­rats, Wash­ing­ton Con­ser­va­tion Vot­ers, Amal­ga­mat­ed Tran­sit Union, M.L. King Coun­ty Labor Coun­cil, and many oth­er pro­gres­sive organizations.

Stokes’ vic­to­ry is yet anoth­er defeat for Tim Eyman bene­fac­tor Kem­per Free­man, Jr., who fund­ed I‑1125 and tried to unseat Bal­duc­ci and Chelmi­nak as well as oppos­ing Stokes. We can now say that Free­man was unsuc­cess­ful on all counts.

Pri­or to the auto­mat­ic manda­to­ry recount that began yes­ter­day and end­ed today, Stokes had a lead of fifty-one votes. He gained three as a result of the recount.

Because the manda­to­ry recount was a hand count (as opposed to a machine tal­ly), there is no fur­ther pos­si­bil­i­ty of recounts.

That means the elec­tion is over and Stokes is the victor.