Mulenga, Baggett and Jeyaraj headed for victory in city council races

Holman and Grames separated by a whisker in bid for school board position

Here are the latest available numbers for the Nov. 6 general election, combining the vote totals in the portions of Auburn in King and Pierce counties, as of 3:31 p.m. Monday, Nov. 19:

Auburn School Board Director Robyn Mulenga ended that day with 6,737 votes to Ryan Burnett’s 6,349 , a 51.2 percent to 48.2 percent difference in the contest for Position 5 on the Auburn City Council.

In the race for Auburn City Council Position 7, incumbent Bob Baggett had 6,726 total votes to challenger Vera Orlandic-Hodak’s 6,382, a 51.01 to 48.4 percent difference.

In the contest for Auburn City Council Position 3, James Jeyaraj had 7,256 votes to Ken Pearson’s 5,800, a 55.28 percent to 44.19 percent advantage.

And in the close race for the lone open seat on the Auburn School District Board of Directors, Arlista Holman had 7,596 votes, or 49.6 percent, to Chris Grames’ 7,512, or 49.4 percent.

How close is that? Suffice to say that a machine recount is required when the difference between the top two candidates for non-state-wide races is less than 2,000 votes and less than one-half of 1 percent of the total number of votes cast for both candidates.

So, barring an unexpected bolt out of the blue, at the moment, the Holman-Grames’ contest qualifies.

“This is a very close race, we are neck and neck, and that is very exciting,” Holman said Tuesday evening. “However this ends, the Auburn School District will be served well.”

Election results will be updated until King and Pierce county officials certify the results Nov. 26. Secretary of State Kim Wyman will certify the final results by Dec. 5.