“No” voters strengthened their lead by 655 for Bothell’s proposed annexation after Snohomish County Elections released its second round of results Wednesday in the special election.

At post time, there were 3,658 “no” votes (54.92 percent) to 3,003 “yes” votes (45.08 percent) submitted by residents of the North, East and West of Bothell Annexation (NEWBA) area in unincorporated Snohomish County.

According to Snohomish County Elections, there are just a few hundred more ballots left to tally.

“The ‘will’ of the people has been upheld once again by the voters in the NEWBA annexation area. A nearly 10-percent margin of victory clearly states the wishes of the people for less government, less taxes and for superior local services,” said Bud NcCorchuk, treasurer for Citizens for Responsible Annexations.

“We can only hope the city of Bothell will honor what they did not six months ago. The message is clear: let all of the grand spending and taxing schemes play themselves out. Pay for those big projects and then offer the NEWBA area something of substance, not just empty promises and a hand on our pocketbook.”

In last November’s election, Bothell annexation failed by the count of 3,767 “no” votes to 3,359 “yes” votes.

“Our group worked very hard in providing the facts as it relates to the benefits of annexation for our families in the NEWBA area. We did not have the manpower or the money that the opposition had,” said Patrick LeDoux of Bothell YES. “We had to convince the voters that this was the right decision, and the opposition did a good job of confusing the voters again of the facts. I am proud of our group for their hard work and running a clean and honest campaign. We will meet soon and re-evaluate our next move.”