Sidhu on top, but Whatcom council race remains close

Satpal Sidhu opened up a slight lead over Kathy Kershner in the race for a Whatcom County Council seat, after updated results for the general election were released Wednesday, Nov. 4.

The two candidates were in a virtual tie after the initial count on Tuesday. Now Sidhu, who was appointed to the seat in March, has a 669-vote lead, or 1.5 percentage points.

“I am very happy about this. It is moving in my direction, but there are a lot more votes to be counted,” Sidhu said.

Kershner, who won a close race for a council seat in 2009, must wait again to find out if she wins or loses.

“I know that in past elections I have seen numbers seesaw back and forth the first couple of days,” Kershner said. “I’m going to wait until all the ballots are counted. I’m still hopeful.”

Kershner and Sidhu have taken jabs at each other over the course of the tense campaign. Kershner filed a complaint against Sidhu with the Public Disclosure Commission in August, accusing him of defaming her with false statements about her voting record on funding domestic-violence services and the food bank.

The PDC later dismissed Kershner’s claims. She had voted against those programs in the first year of her term. She reversed her votes in later years.

Kershner in March had sought the council seat vacated by fellow conservative Sam Crawford. The position was given to Sidhu, and Kershner got no support from the six voting council members. Conservatives pointed to this as an example of a progressive council that was out of touch with rural residents’ interests.

About 10,000 ballots were in the Auditor’s Office on Wednesday afternoon still to be counted, with more coming in Thursday’s mail, Chief Deputy Auditor Diana Bradrick said. The office says it will release another vote count at 5 p.m. Thursday.

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Sidhu on top, but Whatcom council race remains close."