Thousands more ballots counted Wednesday, only in one Spokane County race did the frontrunner change

As county elections officials tabulated thousands more ballots Wednesday, the margins in a handful of close races have budged by a hair, but in only one case did the results flip.

Spokane Public Schools’ $200 million bond is still maintaining its slim supermajority needed to pass, up a hair from the election night tally at 60.7% “yes” votes to 60.8% on Wednesday.

Though a slight gain, Superintendent Adam Swinyard feels the future of the measure is still on rocky ground.

“There’s still quite a few ballots,” Swinyard said after a Spokane Public Schools board meeting. “We’re sitting at a 60.78; that’s definitely not at a place where we feel comfortable. We’re optimistic, but not comfortable.”

If recent history is any predictor, the thousands of ballots county staff has yet to count should bode well for the school district. Support continued to climb after election night in the school district’s last three bond attempts in 2015, 2018 and 2024. The biggest change was in November 2018, when post-election night counts boosted overall support by 2.4 points, totaling 69.3% of the vote that year.

“We’re hoping that trend continues in this particular circumstance, however there’s some different variables in terms of voting patterns this year,” Swinyard said, noting anecdotal reports of long lines at drop boxes and this year’s postmark delays that mean some mailed ballots may be tossed.

Its partner ballot measure, the city parks’ $240 million levy that schools campaigned alongside, is still passing, but support dipped slightly by a tenth of a percentage point.

The close race to represent northeast Spokane grew just the tiniest bit closer Wednesday. On election night, progressive candidate Sarah Dixit was trailing conservative Councilman Jonathan Bingle by 202 votes; as of Wednesday, that gap narrowed to 184 votes.

The incredibly small gap for Cheney mayor also narrowed by the slightest margin Wednesday. Incumbent Mayor Chris Grover trails his challenger, Elsa Martin, by 20 votes, down from 27 on election night.

The closest race of the night Tuesday, meanwhile, flipped on Wednesday. A Cheney City Council position up for election had software engineer Rebecca Long leading firefighter Timothy Steiner by just two votes on election night; Wednesday’s tally gave Steiner a 30-vote lead.

In Central Valley, the race between incumbent Pam Orebaugh, a nurse educator, and moderate challenger Mark Bitz, retired teacher, is still too close to declare a victor.

Orebaugh’s lead over Bitz jumped by 0.4%, positioning her with 51.5% of the vote.

“I like that the lead increased a little; I’ll just keep watching the numbers,” Orebaugh said in a brief phone call on her way to a school board event.

In the other Central Valley race, moderate family doctor Allen Skidmore maintains his strong lead over conservative pharmacist Brandon Arthur with 58% of the votes.

School levies in rural areas of the county are faring poorly. Up north, Riverside School District and Deer Park School District each sought a capital levy to repair facilities after a bond failed in each district last year. Riverside’s $18 million capital levy is failing with 42.2% support between Spokane and Pend Oreille counties. Deer Park’s $14.5 million capital levy sits at 45.4% support among Spokane, Pend Oreille and Stevens counties.

There are still around 26,000 ballots around Spokane County to be counted. Staff will release another round of votes Thursday.