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Friday, November 27, 2009

Evan Smith: Tracey beats Ryu by 183 votes

By Evan Smith  
ShorelineAreaNews Politics Writer

Shoreline City Council candidate Shari Tracey held a 183-vote lead over incumbent City Councilwoman Cindy Ryu in the final certified vote count Tuesday.

County elections officials met Tuesday to certify results. Ryu gained nine votes from the unofficial count posted Monday afternoon.

Tracey’s 183-vote margin keeps her well out of the range for a mandatory recount.

State law requires a recount when the margin between two candidates is less than 0.5 percent of the total vote cast for the two candidates – in this case 80 votes. The law requires a hand recount when the margin is 0.25 percent – in this case 40 votes.

Any candidate can request a recount by paying 15 cents per ballot for a machine recount or 25 cents per ballot for a hand recount. With 18,132 ballots cast in Shoreline, a machine recount would cost $2,719.80 and a hand recount $4,533.

Although any candidate can request a paid recount through Dec. 1, a County elections spokeswoman told me Tuesday that she considers the election over.

At Monday's City Council meeting, Ryu said that, since she would miss the December meeting, this week's would be her last meeting.

Tracey won 50.4 percent of the votes to 49.3 percent for Ryu.

Shoreline ballots left blank on this contest total 2,054.
Here is the final vote count:


Council Position No. 5

Shari Tracey

8,109
50.44%

Cindy Ryu

Candidate total

7,926

16,035
49.30%


Write-in 

 Total Votes

Undervotes
TOTAL BALLOTS

43

16,078
2,054
18,132
0.27%