UPDATE: Greenway-Nixon Council Race Going Down to Final Count on Monday

UPDATE, Wednesday Nov. 23, 3 p.m.: The race between challenger Toby Nixon and incumbent Jessica Greenway for the Kirkland City Council Position 4 seat remains too close to call and will go down to the last count on Monday, Nov. 28. King County Elections updated its count from the Nov. 8 general election on Wednesday afternoon and Nixon remained ahead, now by 185 votes, 10,625 to 10,440 (50.3 percent to 49.43 percent).

Several hundred ballots in the race had been contested for things such as mismatching signatures or improperly marked ballots, and both candidates were working to encourage supporters notified of such by elections officials to respond. Greenway said Wednesday she was not giving up.

“Not only are we going to hang in there, but we are also going to continue our work,” she said.

Nixon encouraged voters whose ballots were challenged to respond to the county.

"It was encouraging that in today's count, the margin didn't narrow," he said. "We picked up a few votes. So we have one more day left to count."

The final vote total will be released Monday afternoon, and the election certified Tuesday morning.
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Challenger Toby Nixon and incumbent Jessica Greenway are both urging Kirkland voters whose Nov. 8 general election ballots might have been challenged to respond to King County Elections as their close Kirkland City Council race remains undecided.

After Thursday evening’s update in the count, Nixon, a former state legislator, was ahead of Greenway, a two-term council member, by 237 votes. That was with 49.97 percent of Kirkland’s registered voters having been counted, and an expected turnout of about 51 percent.

Nixon said some 700 Kirkland ballots had been challenged by elections officials for signatures not matching or other reasons, such as being filled out improperly. He said his campaign has reached out to its supporters, encouraging any whose ballots have been challenged to respond to King County elections.

“I encourage anybody who received a letter from the county to please respond and make sure their ballot is counted,” he said.

Greenway would not say her campaign has been contacting supporters, but agreed that those whose ballots have been challenged should follow up.
“I urge supporters and any voters who have had ballots challenged to return the paperwork,” she said.

King County Elections will update the counts Friday evening and each day next Monday through Wednesday, then one last time on Nov. 28 before it certifies the election.

If less than one-half of one percent of the vote separates candidates, an automatic recount is triggered.

After Thursday’s update, the conservative Nixon led with 50.4 percent of the vote to the more liberal Greenway’s 49.3 percent.

Nixon remained confident, but said he was not declaring victory.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” he said, adding that from his figuring, only some 500 ballots are left to be counted.

“If there really are only 500 ballots left, Jessica would need to get 80 percent of them and I think that’s unlikely. (But) I’m not comfortable saying it’s a done deal. We're just going to keep following it."

The steadfast Greenway said she is not giving up.

“My supporters and I are going to wait until every vote is counted,” she said Friday. “We’re going to hang in there and have confidence until every last vote is counted. We feel we owe that to our supporters.”

The winner will take over the Position 4 seat on Jan. 1, 2012.

Patch earlier declared City Council incumbents Dave Asher and Bob Sternoff the winners in their races for Positions 6 and 2 respectively.