SeaTac minimum wage measure survives recount
Dec 9, 2013, 11:58 AM | Updated: 5:06 pm
King County election workers (right) hand recount ballots Monday on SeaTac Proposition 1 under the watchful eyes of observers. (Leslie Brown/King County Elections photo)
(Leslie Brown/King County Elections photo)
The effort to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour will stand in SeaTac after a recount Monday failed to overturn the election results.
Proposition 1 passed by just 77 votes out of 6,003 ballots cast.
Common Sense Washington, a business group opposed to the measure, requested the recount.
“Close only counts in horseshoes,” said Mike West, Co-Chair of Common Sense. “Even though the citizens of SeaTac are narrowly divided on the wisdom of this idea, the businesses now have to prepare for living with this measure.”
Teams of two were counting the ballots Monday, reading off the results and hand tallying them under the watchful eyes of an observer seated at a table with them, said Kim van Ekstrom with King County Elections.
“They take it a batch at a time until they’ve done all the batches,” she says. “Then they compare the results against those certified in the November election.”
The minimum wage measure also faces a court challenge led by Alaska Air Group. It questions whether it has authority at the airport, which is operated by the Port of Seattle.
The SeaTac minimum wage campaign drew $1.8 million in spending in the small city, with national labor groups supporting higher pay and national business groups opposing.
Washington has the nation’s highest state minimum wage at $9.19 an hour. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
