Cliffhangers Are Order Of The Day In Numerous Races Tabulation Of Absentee Votes Will Decide Nip-And-Tuck Picks

Voters in Chewelah, Springdale and Kettle Falls won’t be sure about some of their new leaders until Stevens County election officials count absentee ballots Tuesday.

In Lincoln County, Sprague residents will have a better idea about their cliffhanger mayoral race today when more absentee ballots are counted.

Up to 31 ballots could be returned before the election is certified next Wednesday. On election night, write-in candidate Barbara Danner held a 93-90 edge over incumbent Mayor Evalyne Tabor.

In the Chewelah mayoral contest, Ron McCoy holds a 27-vote lead over Lew Arnold, 380-353, but 186 absentee ballots remain uncounted. By Wednesday morning, 111 absentee ballots had been received.

Absentee ballots often are issued to traveling retirees, but it is difficult to guess which candidate they might favor.

If retirees really dominate the absentees, they might be impressed by outgoing Mayor Gloria Davidson’s endorsement of McCoy, a manager at the local Safeway store. Davidson, 73, is a senior citizen herself.

On the other hand, Arnold has lived in the area much longer than McCoy and has better name recognition because of the “Question Guy” column he writes for the Chewelah Independent newspaper.

Springdale Town Councilman Dan Hite is two votes ahead of Councilman Floyd Pope, 59-57, in the race to replace outgoing Mayor Ernie Gehrke. Election officials say 13 of 23 absentee ballots had been returned by Wednesday morning.

The Springdale council race between Lowell Peterson and Vickie Denman also will be decided by absentees. Peterson, an ally of Hite’s in the town’s bitterly divided politics, is leading 59-54.

In Kettle Falls, attention is focused on Hazel Bruneau’s 208-200 lead over Angus Williams for a vacancy on the City Council. Election officials had received 59 of 101 absentee ballots by Wednesday morning.

Bruneau, director of the local food bank, was voted off the council twice in the past. Williams serves on the city and county planning commissions and was the leading contributor to far-right Stevens County Commissioner J.D. Anderson’s 1994 campaign.

It is possible, but unlikely, that absentees could change the other two contested races in Kettle Falls. Mayor Jerry Davis and Councilman Steven B. West have commanding leads over their challengers.

A two-year operating levy for the Columbia School District, based in Hunters, could easily be overturned by absentees. The measure needs 60 percent support and now has just 60.1 percent, 149-99. By Wednesday morning, 53 of 94 absentee ballots had been returned.

, DataTimes