New: Linquist winning Wahkiakum race by a single vote
Wednesday, November 29, 2006 3:20 PM PST
By Michael Andersen
Printable version
E-mail this articleWith the final vote tally in the Wahkiakum County commissioners race giving Mark Linquist a one-vote victory over Blair Brady, election workers will conduct a state-mandated hand recount Friday.
The recount will begin at 9 a.m., County Auditor Diane Tischer said, and results should be certified by 3 p.m.
The first count, completed Tuesday afternoon, gave Linquist, an independent and the incumbent, 890 votes. Brady, a Democrat, got 889.
There were nine write-ins.
At the previous tally, Brady had narrowly led Linquist, 879 to 877. Late ballots coming in from the western side of the county, which was hit by flooding on Election Day, may have swung the result.
A controversial request by an energy company to build a liquified natural gas terminal and pipeline in the region may have tightened the contest. According to county Democratic chair Bill Coons, Brady opposed the application; Linquist took no public position, and said he's keeping his views to himself.
Tischer said the state requires recounts when the victory margin is less than one half of 1 percent, and hand recounts when it's less than a quarter of 1 percent.
One vote in the Linquist-Brady race works out to just over one-twentieth of 1 percent.
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