It's Official

As expected, my 56-vote loss has been certified. Congratulations Janeen!

This doesn't quite mean the end for this school board race though-- as mentioned in the last post, there is a sudden additional vacancy on the board (to be filled by appointment), and I have applied. I'll update this blog when the final decision is announced.

A Surprising Postscript

One of the current board members who was not up for reelection this year suddenly announced her resignation, to take a salaried job with the district:
http://comment-blog.advance.net/cgi-bin/mte/mt-search.cgi?tag=Beth%20Graser&blog_id=3957. This means that the remaining board members get to appoint a new member of their choice to the board. I think they are planning to act quickly, as they gave less than 2 weeks between announcement of the vacancy & the application deadline. (I've heard various cynical theories about the timing and intent of this move, but would prefer not to dwell on negatives at the moment.)

I have applied to be her replacement. Coming so soon after an election, I think it's common sense that the board should listen to the voters when choosing their new member: in addition to losing my seat by only a tiny margin, I have significantly more votes than any of the other non-elected candidates, and in fact more votes than the winner of one of the other seats. So I think I would be the logical choice.

I'll update the blog if there are any further developments.

Unofficial Final Total: Congratulations Janeen

It's looking clearer that I have lost. I'll wait until the numbers are certified (expected 6/8) to call Janeen and formally concede, but unless the elections office suddenly discovers a major issue, this is what they currently call their "unofficial final" count:

Hillsboro School Dist 1J Director - Pos 1 Vote for 1
Erik Seligman . . . . . . . . . 3,537 38.13
Janeen A Sollman . . . . . . . . 3,593 38.74
Nina E Olson Carlson. . . . . . . 2,102 22.66
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 43 .46