Richland School Board race likely headed to a recount

A razor-thin margin between two candidates vying for a seat on the Richland School Board means the election is likely headed to a mandatory recount.

Jill Oldson is leading Brett Amidan by four votes in the Nov. 3 election with 6,159 votes, or 50.02 percent. Amidan collected 6,155 votes, or 49.98 percent. Mandatory manual recounts are required under state rules where there is less than a quarter of 1 percent and less than 150 votes separating between two candidates.

Benton County election officials said the need for a recount isn’t official yet as another tally of ballots will be made Nov. 23 ahead of the official certification of the results on Nov. 24. But with only 148 uncounted ballots remaining — all needing either signature verification or review by the election canvassing board — it’s increasingly unlikely the result will change much before a recount is announced.

Oldson and Amidan are both seeking the seat held by board member Mary Guay, who decided not to seek re-election. Oldson formerly worked in the hospitality industry and was a stay-at-home mom until recently becoming a substitute teacher. Amidan is a statistician at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and also adjunct faculty at Washington State University Tri-Cities.

Election officials said mandatory manual recounts, which means each ballot would be counted by hand rather than machine, are uncommon, with the last one happening several years ago in a judge’s race. The recount likely would take about a week and require about 10 staffers.

While officials wouldn’t have to count as many ballots this time as then, “we’ll have to go through all the ballots to find those from the right precincts,” said Amanda Garcia, Benton County’s election administrator.

Countywide there are 160 ballots awaiting verification of the voter’s signature or are missing signatures entirely. A third of those ballots are for the school board race. Those voters have been notified and have until Monday to verify or sign their ballots so they can be counted.

Another 224 ballots haven’t been counted as they were postmarked too late, Garcia said, and 87 of those are related to the board race. Despite arriving late, each of those ballots has to be reviewed before it can be tossed.

It’s still possible the close race won’t leave a seat temporarily empty on the school board. Richland doesn’t swear in new board members until its first meeting of December, said district spokesman Steve Aagaard. The Dec. 8 meeting is more than two weeks away.

The board is already welcoming one new member after Gordon Comfort, a former Richland High School principal, defeated board President Phyllis Strickler. Incumbent Rick Donahoe held onto his seat despite a challenge from Ron Higgins, a retired engineer who’s run for the school board before as well as for state superintendent.

This story was originally published November 20, 2015 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Richland School Board race likely headed to a recount."