It should­n’t take a close race to remind us that every vote counts, but these days, we need every reminder we can get that par­tic­i­pa­tion in local, state, and fed­er­al elec­tions real­ly and tru­ly does mat­ter. And today, we got a pletho­ra of such reminders, as elec­tions offi­cials in Wash­ing­ton State wrapped up a bevy of recounts in incred­i­bly close con­tests for posi­tions at the local level.

One of those con­tests, which our team at NPI has been track­ing close­ly, is the Red­mond City Coun­cil race between Var­isha Khan and Hank Myers here in our home­town of Red­mond. About a month ago, we report­ed here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate that Khan had over­come a ten point deficit to take the lead over Myers in late bal­lots… a stun­ning, eleventh hour, come from behind development.

Since that late Fri­day evening bal­lot drop on Novem­ber 8th, Khan has main­tained a slim lead over Myers. On Novem­ber 26th, she fin­ished the ini­tial count with that lead intact, but by one vote less than the mar­gin need­ed to avert a recount.

This week, King Coun­ty Elec­tions recount­ed all of the bal­lots in the Red­mond City Coun­cil race via machine recount, and the result was the same: a vic­to­ry for Var­isha Khan by a mar­gin of six­ty-six votes. In less than two weeks, Var­isha Khan will join the Red­mond City Coun­cil as one of its sev­en mem­bers and as one of the first Mus­lim women ever elect­ed to a city coun­cil in Wash­ing­ton State.

Here’s what she had to say after the recount results were delivered:

It’s final­ly offi­cial­ly offi­cial once and for all! The elec­tion is final­ly over and cer­ti­fied! We won!? ? ?? ?

I’m hon­ored to have been elect­ed to serve on Red­mond City Council.

This win was made pos­si­ble by thou­sands of peo­ple who played their own impor­tant roles along the way:

Vot­ers, vol­un­teers, donors, the King Coun­ty Elec­tions teams that count­ed and recount­ed to ensure every vote was count­ed, every­one who post­ed and shared our cam­paign with their friends and family…

My incred­i­ble cam­paign team who put in their blood, sweat, and tears day and night. And my fam­i­ly, who was end­less­ly sup­port­ive and there to help every step of the way.

If we learned any­thing, it’s that every sin­gle vote mat­ters. One vote mat­ters. One vote would have kept us out of recount. 66 votes put us over the edge. More to come. For now, I’m going to eat break­fast and get ready for Fri­day prayers.

We all earned this win. Cel­e­brate and show grat­i­tude. Then let’s get to work. Time for some pos­i­tive change.

What an uplift­ing mes­sage, eh?

As a friend of Var­isha’s who sup­port­ed and advised her cam­paign, I could­n’t be more delight­ed to see her can­di­da­cy brought to a suc­cess­ful finish.

Var­isha’s vic­to­ry will help the Red­mond City Coun­cil look a lot more like the com­mu­ni­ty of Red­mond. She’ll bring a per­spec­tive to the dais that the Coun­cil has nev­er had before, ben­e­fit­ing every­one in Redmond.

Incom­ing Red­mond City Coun­cilmem­ber Var­isha Khan (Cam­paign photo)

Because vot­ers also elect­ed chal­lenger Jes­si­ca Forsythe to the Coun­cil while select­ing Vanes­sa Kritzer for Posi­tion# 5, the Coun­cil will go from major­i­ty male to super­ma­jor­i­ty female. The new Coun­cil (for 2020–2021) will con­sist of:

• Var­isha Khan, Posi­tion #1
• Steve Fields, Posi­tion #2
• Jes­si­ca Forsythe, Posi­tion #3
• Tani­ka Pad­hye, Posi­tion #4
• Vanes­sa Kritzer, Posi­tion #5
• Jeralee Ander­son, Posi­tion #6
• David Car­son, Posi­tion #7

They will be joined at the dais by May­or-elect Angela Bir­ney (Kritzer’s pre­de­ces­sor on the Coun­cil) who is tak­ing over from John Marchione.

I have high hopes for this new Coun­cil. Red­mond has work to do on a host of issues, from tree canopy pro­tec­tion, build­ing effi­cien­cy, replac­ing the poor­ly built and poor­ly main­tained Senior Cen­ter, emer­gency pre­pared­ness, and mit­i­gat­ing the  dis­rup­tion that con­struc­tion of Red­mond Link will cause. This new Coun­cil seems like one that will be able to approach these issues with fresh, crit­i­cal eyes.

The NPI team and I look for­ward to see­ing them in action.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Var­isha Khan and all of the oth­er suc­cess­ful can­di­dates in this year’s Red­mond city coun­cil and may­oral elec­tions. May you gov­ern well!