SPOKANE, Wash. — With the latest round of ballot returns on Tuesday, Breean Beggs now leads Cindy Wendle in the race for Spokane city council president, by just 7 votes.
Wendle led on election night, and although Beggs gained ground with each ballot release after that, held that lead for a week.
"If that continues on, we'll be more than seven votes ahead in a few days," he said in an interview Tuesday night.
Wendle did not provide comment on the latest returns following KREM requests.
There are still 8,100 votes left to process in Spokane County, though only some of those will pertain to the council president race.
Regardless, Beggs isn't declaring victory just yet.
"It's so close. I don't really want to give you any false bravado on it," Beggs said. "I'm so happy to be in this position and [have] the trend going my way."
Wendle said she was confident the vote would go her way in the end.
Wendle released a statement on Wednesday, saying she was optimistic the race would go her way.
"Last week's election saw many competitive races across our community, including mine. As the votes continue to be counted, I'm optimistic that the final tally will be in my favor," she said in a statement. "One thing is clear: the voters care about and are engaged in this election and are excited for fresh leadership at City Council."
The trend is also going the way of a recount. State law requires them under certain conditions.
If the difference between the candidates is fewer than 2,000 votes, and less than 0.5% of the total votes the two get combined, a machine recount is mandatory.
If the difference is fewer than 150 votes and less than 0.25%, a recount by hand is required.
If it doesn't meet either criteria, candidates, parties or even groups of voters can request a recount if they're willing to pay for it.
With the current numbers, a by-hand recount would be required, a process that could take weeks.
According to Spokane County data, there have been 20 recounts since 2001.
None of those have resulted in the outcome being changed.
However, at the state level, there was a famous instance of recounts resulting in a changed outcome in 2004.
Christine Gregoire trailed Dino Rossi in the race for governor of Washington after the final ballots were counted.
However, after multiple recounts and various twists, turns, lawsuits, and court decisions, Gregoire came out on top.