Dixit overtakes Bingle in nailbiter Spokane City Council Race that’s still too close to call

Reproductive rights advocate Sarah Dixit has overtaken incumbent Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle in an incredibly tight race that likely will spill over into the coming week.

After counting on Friday, Dixit leads by 53 votes, having overcome the 202-vote deficit she ended with on election night Tuesday. The gap has steadily shrunk every day since and tipped in Dixit’s favor on Friday.

“Well, that’s not great,” Bingle said in a brief interview Friday afternoon. “That’s obviously not what we wanted or are hoping for. Now we have some work to do to cover some ground.”

There are nearly 1,200 votes left to count in the council district.

Dixit said her campaign team has been excitedly processing the news.

“We are feeling really excited and optimistic about the future of this election,” she said.

With a race this tight, both campaigns are eyeing a possible “ballot curing” campaign, which entails finding voters who likely supported them but whose ballots were rejected for technical errors, typically due to being unsigned or having signatures that do not match what elections workers have on file. There are roughly 80 rejected ballots in the district, according to data from the Spokane County elections office.

It is an effort with which Dixit has experience , having worked on the ballot curing campaign for former City Council President Breean Beggs during his nail-biter of an election against Cindy Wendle in 2019.

“I think for us it’s just trying to make sure that for folks wanting to get involved with our campaign that this is an effort that we are trying to pursue right now, trying to make sure everyone’s vote gets counted,” she said.

Voters whose ballots require curing should be receiving notice from the county elections office within three days of receiving the invalid ballot; ballots can be cured by mailed certifications or in-person verification before the elections office closes on Nov. 24.

Voters can check to see if their ballots were accepted at votewa.gov.

“The plan is to wait as votes come in, see what the final result is, and if it’s close, making sure every voice is heard and every vote counts,” Bingle said.

The race is currently close enough to require a recount. State law requires a mandatory machine recount if the gap between candidates is fewer than 2,000 votes and also within a 0.5% margin. As of Thursday night, Dixit was trailing Bingle by 0.7%. After Friday’s count, Dixit led by 0.47%. An automatic hand recount is mandated if the candidates are fewer than 150 votes and 0.25% between each other.