Council recount scheduled for December 3

The final tally from the Nov. 3 election showed incumbent Port Orchard City Councilwoman Carolyn Powers leading challenger Cindy Lucarelli by 12 votes, requiring a machine recount that will take place on Dec. 3.

While the race was not the closest race in the county, it was the only one to prompt a recount.

Bremerton City Councilman Brad Gehring lost his race by 10 votes, but the margin exceeded the required .5 percent.

The Powers/Lucarelli contest showed a gap of .4 percent.

Kitsap County Elections Supervisor Dolores Gilmore said most election totals change after a recount. If Powers maintains a .25 lead, she will win the race; if it slips below that level, a hand recount will be required.

Gilmore said the Auditor’s Office will spend the next few days pulling the ballots out of storage and sorting them according to precinct.

Once sorted, stacked and verified it will only take a few minutes to count the 2,716 ballots, according to Gilmore.

The final results will be announced at a meeting of the Canvassing Board at 2 p.m. Dec, 3.

The meeting, like the entire process, is open to the public.

This is the second consecutive Port Orchard City Election where Lucarelli has come close to unseating an intrenched incumbent.

In 2007, she came within 49 votes of beating John Clauson, who was then (and now) the council’s longest-serving member.

This margin was not narrow enough to trigger a recount.

Powers, who was appointed to the council in 1988, is its second-longest serving member.

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