Precincts indicate tight mayoral race ahead

Maher Kawash by Maher Kawash

Nearly 40,000 people voted in the race to elect Spokane’s next mayor.

Nadine Woodward walked away from the primary with 40 percent of the vote while her opponent, Ben Stuckart, earned 38 percent.

So, that leaves the question of where those votes all came from.

The map shown in this article showed that Stuckart grabs most of his votes from the downtown core of Spokane as well as the South Hill.

In fact, Woodward wasn’t able to win a single precinct between I-90 South and 29th Ave.

But, the same could be said for Stuckart’s campaign.

Woodward earned her 40 percent of the vote by dominating the north side and surrounding areas of downtown.

Stuckart wasn’t able to earn a single precinct north of Wellesley Ave.

Some of those precincts had Woodward with double the amount of votes as Stuckart had.

Now, it may seem like Woodward has the advantage by winning all of those outlying areas, but there are several precincts that were much closer.

The map shows has 13 precincts that are shaded as they were decided by just 10 votes or less, which would leave a chance for change in the general.

Once you factor in the votes in those areas that will come from supporters of Shawn Poole or the other previous candidates then you have an even closer race than expected.

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