By Doug Petrowski

With just a three-vote difference in the City of Brier Proposition 1 ballot tabulations, it’s still too close to determine if the measure will pass, according to Snohomish County Elections and Recording Manager Garth Fell.

Proposition 1, if approved, will annex 15.9 acres of the Allview Heights neighborhood between 228th and 231st Streets Southwest, and 24th and 27th Avenues West into the Brier city limits. Only ballots issued in the proposed annexation area and returned with distinguishable qualified votes get counted in the tabulation.

“I think we’re pretty close to counting all the ballots,” Fell said on Wednesday. Of the 62 ballots mailed out to the area, 53 have been returned to the county’s election division. The current results show Proposition 1 passing 26-23.

The discrepancy between the number of ballots returned (53) and the total voted counted at this point (49) can be explained a couple of ways, Fell said; either voters from the proposed annexation area opted not to mark a vote for or against the proposition, or the ballots either carry a signature that is ineligible, that doesn’t match that on the voter’s registration, or has no signature at all.

Fell’s staff is going through some 20,000 returned ballots county-wide with problems and attempting to determine their authenticity; letters are mailed out to voters who return problem ballots asking them to remedy a signature omission or inconsistency.

Voters have until Nov. 26 to correct a problem with their returned ballot; all county election results must be certified by the county auditor by Tuesday, Nov. 27.

Here is the current Proposition 1 vote count as of Wednesday; the county will continue issuing ballot tabulation reports each day around 5 p.m. this week:

City of Brier Proposition 1?

YES   26    (53.06%)?         NO  23    (46.94%)