A manual recount of the 23,701 ballots cast on November 8, 2005 for the Federal Way School Board Position #1 revealed that Ed Barney has won the race by 23 votes.

The recount, performed on December 5, 2005 by the King County Records, Elections & Licensing Services Division, invalidated the earlier announcement that Grace Rawsthorne would be a new school board member for the current term.

"Of course, I am terribly disappointed," said Rawsthorne. "I went and watched the recount and was impressed by all the checks and balances in the system. Although I'm very sad, I can't argue with the results."

Rawsthorne was thought to be the winner until about six days after the election. That is when the final absentee votes came in and her apparent lead slipped.

With nearly 70% of King County residents voting via absentee ballot, it is this base that decides an election.

"King County elections officials never declare a winner until the day the election is certified, which basically means every last vote, include all of the absentee ballots postmarked by election day, is validated and counted," said Bobbie Egan, spokeswoman for the King County Elections Division.

"Most of our post-election work is processing - bookkeeping, reconciliation and validation," said Egan.

The results for position #1 of the Federal Way School Board were certified on November 29th. It was then that the canvassing board ordered a recount.

The Elections division sorts the ballots into precincts and starts counting. In the race for position #1, there were 151 voting precincts.

"They [the Election division] did everything properly. I didn't make it to the recount, but I had some friends there and they said it was done very professionally," said Edward Barney. "We were up by 28 votes when they certified the election. It's a large number to overcome, even in a recount."

Barney said he was relieved at the final results and that he will keep moving forward.

Barney's stated campaign goal was to increase state funding for busing and special education programs. Rawsthorne's platform was increased test scores district-wide.