Ahern-Driscoll race still undecided

Democrats and Republicans in Spokane are preparing for a recount in what is the closest legislative race in Washington, a contest between Republican state Rep. John Ahern and Democratic challenger John Driscoll.

Driscoll leads by 63 votes out of more than 73,500 cast. The 6th Legislative District, which includes much of the South Hill and parts of west and north Spokane, enjoys the distinction of generating the most votes as well as the closest margin.

“It’s a close one,” Kristine Reeves, the Spokane County Democratic chairwoman, said Tuesday. “It’s pretty tight but we’re optimistic.”

Republicans are also more optimistic than they were on election night, county GOP Chairman Curt Fackler said. In vote counts late last week, a strong GOP trend favored Ahern.

A computer analysis of the precinct vote totals reveals that while the race is close for the entire district, there’s a wide disparity in votes from precinct to precinct.

The 6th is an irregularly shaped district that starts north and west of Spokane city limits, flows down through the Indian Trails neighborhood and West Central, curves around the downtown core, then swings up the South Hill and onto the Moran Prairie. It was a reliably Republican district that hadn’t sent a Democrat to Olympia since Franklin Roosevelt was president. That all changed in 2006, when voters dumped their Republican senator and one of two Republican representatives.

This year, they defeated that Democratic House member, Don Barlow, in favor of a Republican challenger, Kevin Parker. But they were less inclined to send Ahern back for a fourth term.

Ahern did well in the areas outside the Spokane city limits, especially from Whitworth over toward Mead, but Driscoll, the director of a nonprofit health care organization, piled up big margins in the city, particularly in West Central and the South Hill below 29th Avenue. If anything, the results solidify the district’s new reputation as a swing district.

County elections officials will count more ballots on Friday, but have until Nov. 24 to arrive at a final count.

Before that final count, voters who forgot to sign their ballots or who scribbled a signature that doesn’t match the one on their registration form will be given a chance to fix the problem. They can either mail in an affidavit they’ve been sent or go to the Elections Office to “cure” the signature.

If the final tally has the candidates within one-half of 1 percent, state law requires a recount. That would be done by machine unless the margin falls to less than one-fourth of 1 percent.

With the race well below the hand-recount threshold – it’s now at one-tenth of 1 percent – some kind of recount is almost a certainty, Fackler said. While he said he has “full confidence” in the county Elections Office, the party will have observers watching the process.

So will Democrats, Reeves said.

But first Republicans and Democrats will put extra effort into contacting 6th District voters on the “bad signature” list, to remind them that even though the presidential, gubernatorial and congressional races are long since decided – by substantial margins – their ballots could be the difference in this race. They’ll be encouraging them to take the steps necessary to fix their signatures.

“Obviously, every vote counts,” Reeves said.