Washington: John Ahern

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The recount taking place in the 6th Legislative District race won by Democratic challenger John Driscoll (D-Spokane) is going smoothly according to Spokane County Republican Party Chair Curt Fackler, who is among those observing the effort on behalf of Driscoll's opponent, Rep. John Ahern.

The main issue going into the recount revolved around the use of the "duplicate ballots" created by elections officials to replace original ballots containing errors and blemishes that kept them from being counted by voting machines.

A judge turned down the House Republican Organizational Committee’s lawsuit yesterday seeking a restraining order on the counting of ballots in the 6th Legislative District race, but that will not deter them from going forward with their lawsuit to revisit the original ballots that were made into duplicates.

More than a week after last Tuesday’s election, with nearly every ballot tallied and reported, three state legislative races are on the cusp of requiring a mandatory recount, which would come about in a race decided by a margin of less than one half of one percent.

Two of those elections, the 6th Legislative District matchup of Rep. John Ahern (R-Spokane) and John Driscoll (D-Spokane) and the 44th LD race with Rep. Liz Loomis (D-Snohomish) and Mike Hope (R-Everett), are almost certain to require another round, and may even call for a manual recount.