The number of counted ballots continued to rise Wednesday — but 2,578 ballots is still nearly 1,500 short of the 4,030 ballots needed to verify the vote for Mountlake Terrace’s Prop 1 for a new City Hall and police station expansion.

Updated results were released by Snohomish County Elections at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8.

Of the ballots counted, the measure is still strongly favored, with 68.23 percent of ballots voting yes.

If passed, the City will be able to raise $12.5 million to build an approximately 18,000 square-foot City Hall building, as well as add approximately 3,000 square feet to the existing police station.

The new building is needed so the City can stop renting office space to conduct City Hall business. The City of Mountlake Terrace has been renting space from Redstone Corporate Center, located at 6100 219th St. S.W., for City Hall space following a 2008 ceiling collapse in the old City Hall building, which made the building unsafe for employees. Rent costs the city about $40,000 per month.

All three incumbent candidates for the Mountlake Terrace City Council continued to lead in the polls on Wednesday.

And the status of races for the Edmonds School District Board of Directors also remained unchanged following Tuesday’s results, with long-time incumbent Ann McMurray leading challenger Mitchell Below for District 2 and Deborah Kilgore ahead of Cathy Baylor for District 4.

Finally, in the tightly contested Snohomish County Fire District 1 race, incumbent David Chan closed the gap against challenger Michael Ellis, trailing by just three votes in Wednesday’s vote count. Ellis had a 103-vote lead over Chan on Tuesday.

The next set of results will be released at approximately 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9