Black Diamond Proposition No. 1 appears to have lost following the latest tally by the King County Elections office.
According to the figures posted at about 3:30 p.m. today, the measure was failing with 717 no votes, 50.49 percent to 703 yes, 49.51 percent.
It does not appear the margin will trigger a recount.
The proposition is a public services replacement levy.
The measure had been swinging back and forth between winning and losing since the Nov. 3 election. It was passing by six the first night and failing by two by the next night.
By Nov. 20 the proposition moved into the failing category and has stayed.
The election is to be certified tomorrow.
Recount information:
The following information was provided by the King County Elections office concerning mandatory recounts of election results.
Mandatory recounts are addressed in the state law RCW 29A.64.021.
A machine or manual recount is required by state law if the following conditions are met:
• Machine recounts: A machine recount is required for an office or a state measure if the difference between the top two candidates or between approval and rejection of a measure is less than 2,000 and also less than one half of one percent of the total votes cast for the candidates or the measure.
• Manual recounts: A manual recount is required for a race if the difference is less than 150 votes AND also less than one quarter of one percent. There is no provision in state law for a mandatory manual recount for state measures – only a provision for a machine recount as stated above.
A requested recounts is addressed in state law RCW 29A.64.011.
A recount can also be requested for elective offices or ballot measures. A recount for an elective office can be requested by an officer of a political party or any person for whom votes were cast for the office. A recount for a ballot measure or issue can be made by a group of five or more registered voters one of whom needs to be designated group chairperson.
A request for a recount must be submitted with the officer with whom filings are made for that jurisdiction within three working days of certification. The requester must make a deposit for the cost of the recount as follows:
• .25 per ballot for a manual/hand recount and
• .15 per ballot for a machine recount.
• Manual recounts
If a manual recount is called for, all ballots for the race in question are pulled, sorted by precinct and sent to counting teams consisting of three people. These teams only consider the race in question and look at votes for all candidates in that race including votes cast for write-ins.
The tally sheets are gathered and the data is entered onto spreadsheets that will produce the final results. Those results are presented to the Canvass Board for certification.
• Machine recounts
A machine recount enables us to double check our tabulation process for closer inspection of a specific race to ensure that our equipment has an accurate accounting of all votes submitted for final tabulation.
• Why the findings may be different?
A staff person could have missed a ballot that should have been flagged for further review in the initial count. For example, a voter could have failed to fill in the oval that the tabulation equipment reads, but still circled the name of the candidate they wanted to vote for. This ballot should have been duplicated in a manner the machine could read in order to be accurately tabulated.
