SPOKANE, Wash. — Less than two weeks before Election Day, questions have emerged about whether Spokane City Council District 2 candidate Alejandro Barrientos meets the residency requirements to run for office.
According to a report from Range Media, divorce papers suggest Barrientos may not have lived in District 2 long enough to qualify as a candidate under the Spokane City Charter.
The Spokane City Charter states that candidates must be qualified voters who have lived in both the city and the district they are running for during the year immediately before filing to run. Barrientos filed his candidacy in 2025, meaning he needed to have lived in District 2 for the entire year prior.
Divorce papers signed by Barrientos on May 1, 2024, state he and his wife lived in separate homes, but the couple shared a house on the South Hill. The documents have raised questions about where Barrientos actually resided during the required timeframe.
Barrientos said the divorce papers don’t tell the complete story of his living situation.
“We had a plan in mind that, necessarily didn’t work,” Barrientos said. “For the best interests of our kids, and, you know, the time frame of me finding a stable home for for our kids. We just kind of went with that instead of, me moving out.”
During that year, Barrientos said he lived on the South Hill in District 2, but acknowledged spending some nights elsewhere.
“I did stay downtown maybe a handful of times, during that time period. And with my brother, because I was going through a divorce,” Barrientos said.
Barrientos remains eligible to hold office until a legal challenge is made and a judge decides he is not qualified.
His opponent Kate Telis shared in a statement: “I would hope any candidate for public office would strictly follow all rules and requirements related to their candidacy. At this moment, my campaign is using all our energy on encouraging people to vote and promoting my solutions for the challenges we face in Spokane.”
Barrientos said he wants to keep the focus on his campaign message.
“I do want to emphasize that we don’t want to lose sight of the message and what I’m trying to bring to City Council,” he said. “I have no problem litigating this. I know the truth. I know where I resided, and so to me, it’s not it’s not a challenge.”
As of Friday evening, the Spokane County Auditor said that to her knowledge, nobody had filed a complaint against Barrientos.
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