Kelli Linville retains a 220 vote lead for mayor and I'm calling it for Kelli.  I don't think Dan Pike can make up the difference.  We may have only 1,000 more votes to count for the mayor's position.  It may get down to 150 vote lead for Kelli, but she is probably our new Mayor of Bellingham.   The Tuesday 5 p.m. ballot count will show what the final 800 to 1,000 ballots will contain.

Sam Crawford has taken a huge lead for the County Council over Christina Maginnis with today's count.  He went from 600 votes behind on Saturday to 623 ahead this evening.  A 1,200 vote shift.  This is the 'right shift' I was trying to explain on Saturday that we could expect with the final 20% of votes.  Rural county voters tend to mail their ballots closer to election day than their Bellingham cousins.  And each year we see a late count shift to the conservative, or right side of the political spectrum.  

Tony Larson closed by half the gap with Pete Kremen for county council.  While it will probably not be enough, this race is back in play.  Tony is considered the more conservative candidate. If he does the same after Tuesday's count, then this could - just possibly could - swing to Tony. Pete's lead went from 2,340 votes on Saturday to 1,245 votes tonight.  Today they counted 6,233 ballots and tomorrow they will count the final 6,219 ballots.  So - if the trend holds, Pete will win but a mandatory recount will be held.  Tony could win.  

The right shift impacts the county more than the city.  Consider that of today's count of 6,233 ballots, only about 900 were in the city of Bellingham.  That is only 14% of the ballots counted today.  So, at this rate, we may see only 900 to 1,100 ballots counted tomorrow for the mayor's race. 

You can view the full results for all county races.