Election 2009
(2009-11-04)
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SEATTLE
(KPLU) -
If you were hoping the latest voting returns would make the outcome in the race for Seattle mayor more clear, you're in for a disappointment. An already tight contest just got a little tighter.
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Initial results left community activist Mike McGinn with a slim 50-to-49 percent lead over T-Mobile executive Joe Mallahan. Fewer than a thousand votes separated them. The latest returns released by King County Elections show Mallahan gaining slightly on McGinn, narrowing McGinn's lead to 462 votes.
The next batch of returns won't be released till Thursday afternoon at 4:30. And Evelyn Arnold - the county Superintendent of Elections - says that may well not be the end of it, either.
"If races stay close," she says, "we keep continuing counting ballots until certification. If a race stays close we just don't know until the election is certified."
The certification date for this election in November 24th.
Arnold says anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 more votes should be counted and released Thursday.
When the counting is done, if the winner has a lead of less than 2,000 votes AND less than one half of one percent of the total number of votes cast, that would trigger a recall.
Which would mean even more waiting till Seattleites know who their next mayor will be.
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