Saturday, November 19, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

For candidates, sometimes waiting is the hardest part

Seattle Times Eastside bureau

Ava Frisinger won third term as Issaquah mayor.

Maureen McCarry is in a tight race to unseat Issaquah Councilman Bill Conley.

Gil Tumey is running for Snoqualmie City Council.

Hank Stecker is running for Woodinville City Council.

Every weekday since the Nov. 8 general election, Maureen McCarry's BlackBerry goes off around 4:30 p.m. and her cellphone starts ringing.

Have you seen the latest postings? the callers ask. Did you hear how many votes stand between you and your opponent?

"I find out instantaneously," said McCarry, even if she's nowhere near a computer.

The intense interest stems from her bid to unseat incumbent Issaquah Councilman Bill Conley in what has become one of the tightest races for a council seat in recent city politics. Since the polls closed, the race has flipped from Conley's favor to McCarry, who now leads by 27 votes. At one time this week, McCarry was leading by just three votes.

Other candidates involved in tight races in King and Snohomish counties — from Federal Way to Monroe — are experiencing the agonizing wait as elections officials count absentee ballots, verify signatures and sort out challenges to contested ballots. State law says mandatory recounts are required if the difference in vote totals is less than one-half of 1 percent of votes cast and fewer than 2,000 votes.

With 10 days left until the election is certified, nerves are running high, especially in races where margins have widened, narrowed and widened again.

Hank Stecker, a Woodinville council candidate who was down by five votes Thursday, now leads by 68. He spent all of Friday morning on the phone with the election board but couldn't find out why the late votes were fluctuating so much.

"It's been dynamic," he said. "I'm anxious. It's a little antsy."

Stecker said it looks as if the outcome could take several more days to be decided, and a recount is possible.

"We're keeping a positive attitude," said Stecker. His opponent, Randy Ransom, could not be reached for comment.

Issaquah Mayor Ava Frisinger remembers what it's like to be hanging in that state of election purgatory. In 1993, Frisinger ran for mayor and lost by 14 votes, she said. A recount later determined that she lost by 5 votes, she said.

"It's nerve-wracking; it's nail-biting," she said. As soon as the election results updates were posted, her husband, a Boeing engineer, would run the percentages to see how many votes she needed to stay in the game, she said.

"The numbers became less and less pleasing. At some point, I knew that it was not going to be, but I waited until the final verification."

Frisinger just won her third term as mayor by a landslide. Now, she advises candidates on how to handle the electoral roller-coaster.

"I tell them that you must campaign like your life depended on it, but at the same time, remember that your life will not end if you lose," she said.

Gil Tumey, who's running for Snoqualmie City Council, has adopted a philosophical approach about his 32-vote lag behind Bryan Holloway after 1,627 ballots have been counted, which includes one write-in vote.

"You never go into this knowing what's going to happen," he said. "It's a small town; you take your chances. It's not a win-lose thing for me. If it were, that would be kind of devastating, because you're investing yourself in the outcome of something you don't have control over."

Conley says he checks the King County Elections Web site daily.

"It's something that's on my mind constantly; you bet," he said.

The day after the election, Conley held the edge over McCarry by more than 100 votes.

"It sure seemed like the morning after that it was pretty well settled," said Conley, who is running opposed for the first time since he was elected in 1997.

Nov. 9, Conley felt secure enough to send out an e-mail to supporters declaring that, "Our community has spoken," and that, "We as policy-makers need to make the informed decisions about how to provide housing opportunities, ensure economic vitality and improve our quality of life."

Watching the election turn in McCarry's favor has been "amazing," he said.

"It's a good lesson," he said. "But I'm still confident I will prevail."

Sonia Krishnan: 206-515-5546 or skrishnan@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times reporter Peyton Whitely contributed to this report.

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