EVERETT — The latest election results showed things were looking good for the Everett School District and bad for state Sen. Jean Berkey.
The school district’s supplemental levy was passing with a razor-thin 88 vote margin or 11,946 ‘yes’ votes to 11,858 ‘no’ votes, according to the newest numbers released Thursday afternoon by the Snohomish County elections department. The levy would last four years and is expected raise about $4 million a year.
The school levy only needs a simple majority to pass.
“It’s inching up over Tuesday,” said Mary Waggoner, an Everett School District spokeswoman. “We still feel good. These are indeed tough times and that so many people would say yes is encouraging.”
Sen. Berkey, D-Everett, fell further behind challengers Democrat Nick Harper and Republican Rod Rieger in the 38th District Senate seat, which includes Everett, Tulalip and parts of Marysville.
Thursday’s results showed Harper leading with 7,179 votes. Rieger was behind him with 6,694 of the votes. Berkey received 6,578 votes.
Berkey trailed Rieger by 79 votes on Tuesday. That increased to 116 votes on Thursday. The top two-vote getters in the race will advance to the November general election.
The margin is large enough that an automatic recount won’t be triggered.
In an announcement released just before Thursday’s election update at 5 p.m., Berkey wrote that she would fax a formal complaint to the Public Disclosure Commission on Friday morning.
She wrote that her complaint is against two political action committees whose “actions during the primary election amount to a conspiracy to deceive the voters in the 38th Legislative District.”
Labor groups financed a $300,000 campaign opposing her and supporting the more liberal newcomer Harper. Their consultant also sent mailers to voters urging support for Rieger, who had only raised $800 for his campaign.
Berkey won a seat in the House of Representatives in 2001, was appointed to the State Senate in 2004 and elected to retain the seat in 2006.
Four-year levies in the Edmonds School District and Northshore School District were also part of the primary election and are also passing with a simple majority of the vote. The levy in the Edmonds School District has received 17,557 yes votes or 54.07 percent. The levy in the Northshore School District has 51.73 percent or 4,934 yes votes.
A four-year levy in the Marysville School District and a two-year levy in the Granite Falls School District are failing.
Snohomish County elections manager Garth Fell said a few dozen ballots remain to be counted.
“We imagine there are some more ballots,” he said. “Most of the issues are people who didn’t sign the envelope to begin with or whose signature did not match the one we have on file in our system.”
Election results are scheduled to be finalized Wednesday. Results will be updated again at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield contributed to this story.
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.
Full results for the Aug. 17 primary can be found at www.snoco.org/elections/results/ecurrent.htm.
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