Kent City Council candidate Bailey Stober remains “hopeful and optimistic” that he can still overtake opponent Ken Sharp.

Sharp has 49.44 percent of the vote to 47.09 for Stober, according to King County Elections results through Thursday night. Sharp has 6,215 votes, Stober has 5,920, a difference of 295. Sharp led by 279 after election night.

“Mathematically it’s very possible to pull ahead, there are thousands of votes left to count,” Stober said Friday in an email. “In the first three counts after election night we slowly trended up while he (Sharp) trended down. King County updated numbers again at 8:30 Thursday night and he pulled further ahead for the first time in four counts.”

Sharp refuses to comment to the Kent Reporter.

Even if Sharp wins the election, he would later lose the council position if convicted of the felony theft charges against him.

Sharp, who owns Minuteman Press in Kent, is scheduled to return to court Nov. 20 as he faces seven counts of first-degree theft for reportedly stealing $297,500 from his 93-year-old mother’s bank account and putting the money into his account. A court date could be set at the hearing or attorneys could ask for more time to prepare the case.

If convicted as charged, Sharp faces a prison sentence of 22 to 29 months. Sharp has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

“This race isn’t quite over yet and I will keep pushing until every voice is heard and every vote is counted,” Stober said. “If that happens and I’m still behind, I will concede, but I will publicly concede to the citizens of Kent, not Ken Sharp. Mr. Sharp represents what’s wrong with the political system and I’m ashamed he received as many votes as he did.”

Stober repeated what he said election night that he expects Sharp to eventually be convicted. Stober said he would apply to seek a council appointment to replace Sharp. The council would pick a replacement until the next city election.

“Until then, we remain hopeful and optimistic about late voter trends,” Stober said.