A recount that couldn’t change the winner also didn’t change the vote totals.

Last week, Spokane City Council candidate John Ahern paid to have a partial recount in his race against incumbent Jon Snyder.

Ahern, a former state representative, lost the race by 5,669 votes in a margin that was nearly 2-to-1 in favor of Snyder.

The recount was completed today. Officials said the four precincts that he requested to be recounted by hand, which included about 1,600 ballots, were counted accurately the first time by machine.

If the machine count had been wrong, Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said last week that changes could not have changed the winner because Ahern had not request enough votes to be recounted to make up the difference.

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