Reporter staff

Incumbent Rich Wagner has beaten back a stiff challenge from Michelle Binetti to retain his City Council seat.

King County Elections on Tuesday certified the results of the manual recount for Auburn City Council Position No. 6 Tuesday afternoon after completing the data entry required to finalize the result.

Certified results were posted at 4:30 p.m. after the Canvassing Board meeting.

Wagner finished with 6,125 votes, 50.1 percent in the combined results of King and Pierce counties, and Binetti had 6,095, or 49.9 percent.

That razor-thin margin demanded an automatic hand recount.

Binetti actually bested Wagner in King County, 5,583 to 5,304 votes, but Wagner beat Binetti in Pierce County 811 to 507.

“The hand counting portion of our work for both the Auburn and SeaTac recounts was completed (Monday) with no incidents discovered that would appear to alter the outcomes from the general election,” said Sherril Huff, King County Elections director.

A King County recount for a local race hasn’t changed the outcome of an election for more than 10 years.

The recount did identify four write-in votes cast in the Auburn City Council race that were not accompanied by an actual name that should have been tallied as undervotes (blank votes) rather than write-in votes. This correction was noted at the Canvassing Board meeting.