If Republican Dino Rossi becomes governor, he can thank Snohomish and Island counties.
As of Monday night, Rossi trailed Democrat Christine Gregoire statewide by about 158 votes, but in the two local counties he led by approximately 9,500.
Except for about 100 votes that may be counted today, Snohomish County is almost done with the Nov. 2 general election count. The election will be officially certified Wednesday.
The closest election in Snohomish County was in the 10th District. Incumbent Republican Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen had 50 votes more than April Lynne Axthelm of Mount Vernon among Snohomish County voters. But with Island and Skagit county numbers, Haugen easily retained her spot 50.27 percent to 47.10 percent.
In another close race, Democrat Mark Ericks edged Republican Joshua Freed among Snohomish County voters in the 1st District race for representative. But with King County numbers, Ericks took 51.24 percent of the vote, to 48.75 percent for Freed.
Also, Mill Creek passed its emergency services levy with 60.83 percent of the vote. It needed 60 percent to pass.
In Snohomish County, the turnout was a little more than 84 percent. About 96,231 people voted on election day, and 200,481 voted by absentee ballot.
Statewide, Gregoire was leading the governor’s race 1,360,871 to 1,360, 713 – or 48.88 percent to 48.87 percent.
In Snohomish County, 2,797 votes were added Monday to the state total in the governor’s race, Auditor Bob Terwilliger said.
A canvassing board is scheduled to meet this morning to decide whether around 100 other votes will be counted. In most cases, there are questions whether the signatures associated with the ballot match signatures on file, Terwilliger said.
Any new ballots allowed will be counted at 1 p.m.
A recount in the governor’s race is automatic if the final gubernatorial candidates are both less than 2,000 votes apart and there’s less than one-half of 1 percent difference in the final tally.
If a recount is required, Terwilliger said it would start Monday and probably take a couple days.
As always, Terwilliger said elections officials are watching state vital statistics and reading local obituaries every day to take people off the voting roles who have died. But they can’t catch everyone, he previously said.
“That’s always happened,” he said. “They voted already.”
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