Barnes Likely To Retain Seat Race With Talbott So Close Recount Almost Certain

Orville Barnes is likely to keep his Spokane City Council seat four more years.

But it’s a squeaker of a race that’s almost certain to trigger an automatic recount.

Thursday’s ballot count showed incumbent Barnes leading challenger John Talbott by 197 votes - just enough to make it nearly impossible for Talbott to catch up.

“I doubt that there are 200 city ballots left,” said Spokane County Elections Supervisor Tom Wilbur.

Barnes said Thursday he was “surprised” but “pleased” to learn the preliminary election results.

“You know, when the early absentees were 52-48 for him, I was worried,” he said. “But I held onto hopes it would turn around.”

Barnes led Talbott after the election night count by 29 votes. But early absentees favored Talbott, leading many to conclude the challenger would win.

Attempts to reach Talbott were unsuccessful Thursday.

Election officials counted 4,664 ballots Thursday. Those included absentee and mail ballots plus those that had to be repunched because the originals were poorly printed.

Of those counted, 3,637 ballots - more than three-fourths - were from the city of Spokane.

The Talbott-Barnes race is so close it may force an automatic recount. By state law, a recount must be made if two candidates are separated by less than 1/2 of 1 percent of the votes cast in the race.

Barnes is no stranger to a close race. He won his first council term in the final count of absentee and write-in ballots.

Barnes and Talbott both challenged incumbent Bob Dellwo four years ago. Talbott fell off in the primary, and Barnes was losing by a slim margin to Dellwo on election night prior to the final count a few days later.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo