A virtual dead-heat in one Edmonds City Council primary race means Snohomish County elections officials will make a mandatory hand recount Sept. 11 to settle it.
Meanwhile, Monroe’s tight mayoral race saw a candidate concede this week.
That leaves Edmonds council position 3 as the sole undecided race countywide.
The race pits challenger Lora Petso against incumbent Ron Wambolt, who trailed Petso by only three votes as the Canvassing Board on Wednesday certified results of the Aug. 18 primary election.
Hand recounts are required by law when the difference in votes is less than 150 votes and one-quarter of 1 percent.
The winner will Adrienne Fraley-Monillas in the Nov. 3 general election. She captured 3,014 votes — 34.23 percent — while Petso received 2,827 to Wambolt’s 2,824.
Petso, 47, is a lawyer who served on the council from 2000 to 2003 and lost reelection bids in 2003 and 2005. She has cited city finances as her focus.
“I am amazed that anybody can accurately hand count 9,000 ballots, so I hope they have a good system in place,” she wrote in an e-mail.
Wambolt, 75, is running for his second term. In 2005, he defeated incumbent Jeff Wilson, while Petso lost to Michael Plunkett in the general election.
“Virtually everyone I talked to thought I’d be a shoo-in for the general election, and why I’m not is a mystery to all of us,” Wambolt said Wednesday.
Garth Fell, elections manager, said elections staff will count ballots in a day, working in two-person teams comprised of a Republican and Democrat.
“We are anticipating it can be done in a day,” he said. “We do have Monday, Sept. 14 set aside as an additional day should we need it.”
Wambolt and Petso both questioned why partisan political representatives will conduct the recount since council seats are non-partisan.
“To me, if the race is truly supposed to be nonpartisan, the parties should stay out of it,” Wambolt said.
Fell said having representatives from the two major political parties do the recounts ensures “there’s a greater degree of confidence that there’s a check and balance within our office.”
The recount is scheduled to be certified Sept. 15.
In the Monroe mayoral primary, City Councilman Mitch Ruth did not plan to contest his loss in a close race that failed to meet the threshold for a recount.
“No challenges or anything like that,” Ruth said. “I accept the results as being legitimate.”
Ruth lost to former Councilman Robert Zimmerman by 42 votes or 2 percentage points. Zimmerman said both men ran campaigns focused on change and a conservative approach to the budget.
“I’m not surprised by the narrow margin, but nonetheless it’s enough to move me on,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman and Mayor Donnetta Walser will be on the general election ballot. The certified results found Walser leading with 37 percent or 719 votes, then Zimmerman with 32 percent or 620 votes, and Ruth with 30 percent or 578 votes.
A candidate or other interested party can request a recount, but they have to pay a deposit of 15 cents per vote in a machine recount or 25 cents per vote by hand. That deposit is returned if the recount changes the outcome.
About 24.55 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the primary.
For more information go to the Snohomish County auditor’s office Web site at www1.co.snohomish.wa.us/Departments/Auditor.
Herald writer Andy Rathbun contributed to this story.
Oscar Halpert: 425-339-3429; ohalpert@heraldnet.com.
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