One of the two Island County commissioner races on the ballot this year is headed for a manual recount as the two candidates, incumbent Republican Mac McDowell (R-Oak Harbor) and Democratic challenger Angie Homola (D-Oak Harbor), sit within 59 votes of one another.

McDowell is a longtime incumbent, but trails Homola after slowly whittling away her lead over the course of the last three weeks. 

In other Island County recount news, Rep. Norma Smith (R-Oak harbor) is poised to narrowly stave off a recount in her race with Tim Knue (D-Oak Harbor) in the 10th Legislative District, which covers all of Island and parts of Skagit and Snohomish Counties.  Knue led by relatively large margins early on in the vote count, but Smith overtook him in mid-November and currently holds a 0.6% lead with next to no votes remaining to be counted. A recount requires a margin smaller than 0.5%.