The race for the second ballot line for this fall’s open Kent School Board is officially headed to mandatory recount.
King County Elections Officials Sept. 2 certified the results of the Aug. 18 primary election and while Tim Clark is running away with the first ballot line (gaining more than 51 percent of the ballots cast), the margin between the second- and third-place finishers falls within the legal limits for a machine recount.
Only 26 votes separate second-place finisher Dale Smith from Dave Watson, a difference of 0.3 percent of the total votes cast for either of those two candidates.
Final turnout for the race was 25.83 percent of ballots mailed out.
King County law states that a machine recount is required if the difference between the vote totals of the two candidates is less than 2,000 votes and 0.5 percent. A hand recount is required if there is a difference less than 150 votes or 0.25 percent.
The official recount will take place at 10 a.m. Sept. 8 at the King County Elections building in Renton.
The race for the second ballot line is even more interesting this year because Smith has repeatedly announced that he has withdrawn from the race and will not be running for the seat. Smith said since filing to run, his work situation changed and he would no longer be able to devote the time or energy to the job if elected.
Smith’s attempt to pull of the race, however, came after the official date by which candidates may pull out, meaning that if he finishes in second, his name will move forward to the November election.
In an e-mail sent Friday, Watson said he does not expect the machine recount to change the outcome of the primary election, but said it is “ridiculous” that someone who wants their name removed from the ballot would move forward to the general election, essentially denying the people of Kent a choice of candidates.
“It seems a shame that the ‘race’ would become a moot point, with no real contest,” he wrote in an e-mail. “The only other school board ‘race’ wasn’t even contested in the primary, let alone the general election.”
Watson is referring to the other board seat up for election this fall in which current board member Bill Boyce is running unopposed.
“It’s a sad comment on participatory democracy in the US of A,” he wrote.
According to an interview earlier this month with Kim van Ekstrom, chief communications officer for King County Elections, ballots for the District Director No. 5 race will be pulled and then re-fed through the machines at the election office.
The process is open to the public.
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