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Two Olympia races in play as ballot-counts resume

• Published November 04, 2009

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Thurston County elections workers were prepping more ballots for counting later today, and two Olympia City Council races may be hanging in the balance.

County Auditor Kim Wyman said the outcome might not be known for sure until Thursday in the race where Jeannine Dellwo Roe was leading incumbent Joan Machlis by 83 votes — 4,649 to 4,566.

That gap is still outside the range of an automatic recount at this point; law requires one if the difference is less than a half percentage point, which calculates to 46 votes at this point, Wyman said.

One other race in question shows newcomer Karen Rogers ahead of newcomer Karen Veldheer by 241 votes — 4,662 to 4,421. That's less likely to be overturned by additional ballots, but more should be clear today. "If Veldheer starts narrowing the gap with today's count, then it's probably too close to call,"’ Wyman said.

In both races, the candidates with the most votes were opposed to the city's rezone of the isthmus between Capitol Lake and Budd Inlet to allow high-rise development. Veldheer also opposed it.

The Democratic Party provided help to all three of the candidates, but not Veldheer, who did not ask for it, chairman Jim Cooper said.

Quite a bit of counting remains to be done. Wyman said the county formally received and processed 54,980 ballots then counted 52,971 of them last night. Another 10,000 were collected from drop sites yesterday but not processed, and 4,000 came in the mail today; and she expects another 5,000 today from drop boxes.

"We'll probably get to about 73,000 ballots counted" for the whole election, Wyman said. "We're probably looking at 49-50 percent turnout by the time we certify."

That would be in line with the statewide prediction by Secretary of State Sam Reed, but well short of the 60 percent to 61 percent Wyman expected.

"People for whatever reason did not choose to participate," Wyman said. "It's odd. These are races that are very close to home. But one in two voters decided not to vote."

UPDATED: Here’s the link to the county’s results, which are expected to be updated online by 6 p.m. today. The day's count is to begin around 4.