Everett, Wash.
Published: Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Hope-Loomis race still undecided

The 44th Legislative District candidates are 118 votes apart while an Island County commissioner contest is split by just 60 votes.

By Jerry Cornfield
Herald Writer

 EVERETT -- Republican Mike Hope defeated Democratic Rep. Liz Loomis by 118 votes in election results certified as official Tuesday.

But he is not the winner and the outcome is not final.

That's because the razor-thin margin automatically triggers a state-mandated hand recount of all ballots cast in this hotly contested 44th Legislative District race.

Preparations are under way with tabulating of ballots set to start Dec. 9.

Hope is confident his margin will hold up.

"It's exciting but statistically I don't think it's ever happened where a person came back from 100 votes in a recount in a race in the county," said Hope, 33, who is making his third bid for state office.

Loomis, 38, is trying to hold onto a position to which she was appointed in January.

"I am so grateful to the supporters who helped us get this far. It was a Herculean effort to be sure as we head into the hand recount," she said in an e-mail.

Theirs is one of two legislative races slated for a manual recount. The other is in Eastern Washington where Rep. John Ahern, R-Spokane, trails Democratic challenger John Driscoll by 74 votes.

And a similar situation is unfolding in Island County where Angie Homola leads incumbent District 2 County Commissioner William "Mac" McDowell by 60 votes in results certified Tuesday. The winner in this contest could be known by the end of next week.

State law requires recounts in tight races and spells out whether they will be done by hand or machine.

A hand count is required when two standards are met: fewer than 150 votes separate the candidates and the percentage between them is less than one-quarter of one percent.

Hope garnered 34,437 votes to Loomis' 34,319, or 50.01 percent to 49.84 percent, in figures certified Tuesday by the Snohomish County Canvassing Board. There were 104 write-ins among the 68,860 votes cast.

The three-member board also directed Snohomish County Auditor Carolyn Weikel to conduct the recount and bring the results back to the panel Dec. 15 for certification.

Hope won't be on hand as votes are counted from Dec. 9-12.

"I'm just going to relax, coach wrestling and do my job with the Seattle Police Department," he said. "My campaign team will monitor it all. I think it will be more of a nuisance to have me there."

Hope has already declared victory, participated in meetings of the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives and will attend orientation next week.

He wanted to be sworn in Tuesday, but Weikel said no.

"The election is still in a pending mode because state law mandates we do the hand recount," she said.

In the Hope-Loomis recount, the first task will be segregating the roughly 72,000 ballots cast in the 44th Legislative District from those cast in all other areas of the county. Then they will be separated into precincts.

Counting will be done by pairs of people, one each from the Democratic Party and the Republican Party with an election worker observing and verifying the calculations.

Weikel said the final numbers will be different than those certified Tuesday. Inevitably some write-ins will be for one of the candidates and some ballots may have marks next to a candidate's name that did not get read by the machines.

"I anticipate seeing small differences but I don't anticipate seeing a change in the outcome," she said.

In Island County, Auditor Sheilah Crider said the hand count of ballots in the race between Homola and McDowell should begin Monday and last into the following week.

McDowell, an Oak Harbor Republican, is seeking his fifth term on the commission. McDowell said earlier that he did very little campaigning in the race and noted that he still led his challenger by 14 percentage points in the primary.

Homola, an Oak Harbor Democrat, has maintained a slight lead in the race since Nov. 4. She said that she challenged the longtime commissioner in part because she wants to see Island County residents more involved in the process of county government.

State law only requires one recount regardless of the outcome.

Candidates can request an addition tally if they pay for it. They get their money back if the results change. This happened in 2004 when Chris Gregoire requested the hand count that brought her victory in the race for governor.



Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA