Challenger is within recount range.

Chris Henry
chenry@kitsapsun.com
PORT ORCHARD
Cindy Lucarelli, challenging long-time incumbent Carolyn Powers, for Port Orchard City Council position 2, moved within recount range in unofficial results Thursday. The two candidates are now separated by 10 votes.
Powers has held a whisker of a lead since the election Nov. 3. She was besting Lucarelli by .58 percentage points as of Nov. 9
In revised results, released Thursday afternoon by the Kitsap County Auditor, Powers, with 1,207 votes, had 49.83 percent of the total vote. Lucarelli had 1,197 votes for 49.42 percent of the vote. That .41 percentage point difference puts Lucarelli within the range for an automatic recount, triggered under state law by a margin of less than half a percentage point.
There are currently 18 write-in votes.
Results of the election will not be certified until Tuesday, and Kitsap County elections manager Dolores Gilmore cautioned that things still could change. The county has a total of 14 challenged ballots received from the City of Port Orchard. These are unsigned ballots or ballots in which the signature does not match up with the voter registration. Voters have the chance to verify their signature by affidavit or in person, but it must be done by Monday afternoon. There are also military votes that could arrive before the final count, Gilmore said.
Powers is on a trip out of the country and was unavailable for comment.
Lucarelli is encouraged and eager to see the final count Tuesday.
“I have nothing to lose at this point,” she said. “It’s very exciting for me. I can’t wait to see what happens. … Hope springs eternal.”
Lucarelli is having a bit of deja vu. In 2007, she came within 3.12 percentage points of beating incumbent John Clauson, who has been on the council for more than 26 years. Powers was appointed to the council in 1988 to fulfill an unexpired term and has been reelected five times.