All ballots in hand have been counted by the Whatcom County Auditor’s Office, but two races remain extremely close, and candidates interviewed are neither declaring victory nor defeat.

Chris Hatch and Dave Pros are separated by 19 votes for second place, behind Bob Kelly, in the race for Whatcom County Council District 1, Position B.

The top two vote-getters move on to the November general election.

Pros said he was disappointed that the four-vote difference that separated himself and Hatch on Wednesday had widened. But Pros said he wanted to wait to see if more ballots come in and change the results.

Pete Griffin, election supervisor at the Auditor’s Office, said all ballots had been counted, and he doesn’t expect many more ballots to come in. Some may trickle in that were mailed from outside of the area, he said.

Chris Hatch was “extremely optimistic” about the results, said Randy Edin, who works on Hatch’s campaign.

In Bellingham’s City Council Ward 4 race, Damon Gray continued to lead City Councilman Don Gischer by 28 votes, up from 22 on Wednesday. The winner between those two will face Stan Snapp, who received almost 44 percent of the vote.

Gray would not proclaim victory over Gischer, saying he would like to see if more votes come in and change the standings.

“I’m encouraged by that trend. But again, 28 votes, that could disappear pretty quickly,” he said.

Gischer has not returned calls seeking comment regarding the race since election night, when he was leading.

The auditor’s Web site statedthat 24,688 ballots had been received and that 23,160 had been counted toward the vote totals.

It was unclear why there was a discrepancy between the number of ballots received and the number counted, and Griffin couldn’t be reached for further comment.