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No votes change in auditor’s race after McCaslin’s recount request

Teresa Hudson, who said she is with the GOP, uses a pair of binoculars to survey the scene during a hand recount of votes for the Spokane County auditor’s race on Wednesday at the Spokane Elections Office. (Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review)
Teresa Hudson, who said she is with the GOP, uses a pair of binoculars to survey the scene during a hand recount of votes for the Spokane County auditor’s race on Wednesday at the Spokane Elections Office. (Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo
By Colin Tiernan colint@spokesman.com(509) 459-5039

A partial hand recount of the Spokane County auditor’s race on Wednesday failed to change a single vote, leaving incumbent Democrat Vicky Dalton as the winner over Republican challenger Bob McCaslin.

The 2022 auditor’s race was a nail-biter, with Dalton taking 50.25% of the vote to McCaslin’s 49.7%. A mere 1,183 votes separated the candidates out of more than 220,000 ballots cast.

The race was nearly close enough to trigger an automatic countywide recount. Washington law requires machine recounts when candidates are separated by fewer than 0.5 percentage points and 2,000 votes, and hand recounts when the margin is closer than 0.25 percentage points and 150 votes.

Despite trailing by 1,183 votes, McCaslin still wanted a partial hand recount. The 4th Legislative District lawmaker asked Spokane County elections staff to recount 2,398 ballots from five voting precincts located in southern Spokane’s Eagle Ridge area.

Recounts rarely change more than a few votes, and it was extremely unlikely McCaslin could have made up the deficit. He declined to comment on the recount Wednesday .

The Spokane County canvassing board will meet Thursday at 1:30 p.m. to certify the amended abstract of the election results.