Four Lynnwood council incumbents trailing in election returns

Published 2:43 pm Thursday, November 5, 2015

The four incumbent Lynnwood city council members on the Tuesday, Nov. 3, general-election ballot all were trailing in votes counted through Thursday.

If results hold, as votes slowly trickle in, Councilmen Van AuBuchon, Benjamin Goodwin and Sid Roberts all would lose the seats that they first won four years ago, and Councilman Loren Simmonds would lose the position that he has held for 16 years.

If all four challengers go on to defeat the incumbents, it would continue a turnover trend that started in Lynnwood in 2011, when AuBuchon, Goodwin and Roberts defeated incumbents, and continued in 2013, when voters elected a new mayor, elected a new council member, elected a council member who been appointed a year before and returned a former council member to office.

Goodwin is the closest of the four current incumbents to retaining his seat. He trails challenger Chris Frizzell by a 50 percent to 49 percent margin.

Goodwin had trailed Frizzell by a much bigger margin in a three-way August primary, with Frizzell leading 46 percent to 41 percent.

Simmonds trails challenger Shirley Sutton 55 percent to 44 percent after leading Sutton in a three-way primary.

AuBuchon trails challenger Shannon Sessions 58 percent to 42 percent, and Roberts trails challenger George Hurst 53 percent to 47 percent.

Election returns reported Thursday show a countywide turnout of 23.33 percent, but Snohomish County elections officials expect that the final count will reach 33-34 percent, enough to avoid the all-time low of 31 percent. Officials plan to continue to post updated returns Friday afternoon and every weekday until final certification of results Nov. 24.

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