Spokane’s district residency requirements may disqualify Spokane City Council candidate Alejandro Barrientos for the District 2 seat he’s running for. The city’s charter requires candidates to live in the district they’re seeking to represent for a full year immediately preceding the time the candidate files to run, but divorce documents filed last year show Barrientos told the courts he was not living in his District 2 home during that time period.
Barrientos and his ex-wife Eva Vigouroux had three shared properties before their divorce: a condo in District 1 in downtown Spokane, a house on the South Hill in District 2 and a property in Idaho.
In order to be qualified to run, Barrientos would have to have lived in District 2 since May 5, 2024 — a full year before he filed.
Where Barrientos was residing in that timeframe is complicated.
In June of 2024, Vigouroux had certified in a court document that she was living with their two children at the house in District 2. In the dissolution of marriage petition Barrientos filed to the courts that same month, he certified that he and his soon-to-be-ex wife were living in separate households and had been since May 2024.
The parenting plan the two submitted in June of 2024 also outlined the days the children would spend with Vigouroux versus the days they would spend with Barrientos, showing they were living in different households when they filed for divorce and were planning to continue in separate households. A final order submitted in October of 2024 continues to list Barrientos and Vigouroux as having separate homes.
A month before he filed to run in May of 2025, Barrientos purchased a new home, back on the South Hill, where he has been living since.
Spokane City Council Candidate Alejandro Barrientos may be ineligible to represent District 2 by Valerie Osier
Addresses have been redacted to protect Barrientos and Vigouroux’s privacy.
“It was a stage in my life where I was on the go all the time. I was with my kids. I was with my ex-wife, and then there were nights where I had to stay downtown. There were nights where I had to stay with my brother,” Barrientos said. “There were nights where I stayed within the district … I would bear to guess probably 75% of the time. But I would have to talk to [Vigouroux] if she can remind me.”
“One thing is what’s on paper, and another is the reality of things,” Vigouroux said in a text to RANGE. “Alejandro was at home with us, and his belongings were here until he finally settled into his current place.”
Despite the divorce paperwork stating the contrary, Barrientos said he personally considered the South Hill house his primary residence.
“ To me, a primary residence is where you have your belongings, where you’re registered, where you’re having a day to day,” he said. “That’s where I had everything. That’s where I would come to bathe my kids, spend time with them, and spend the night sometimes.”
It’s also where he was registered to vote and where his ballot was delivered for the November 2024 General Election, just the second election Barrientos had ever voted in, according to Washington State voting records.
“Divorce is a lot more complex than just paperwork,” he said. “You’re in a divorce not having a place to be. It’s complicated, especially with kids ’cause you don’t want to disrupt kids.”
Over the yearlong period from when Barrientos filed for divorce and certified he did not live with Vigouroux, and the day he filed for office in May 2025, Barrientos said he stayed with his brother, who lives in Cheney, for roughly two cumulative — though not consecutive — months. He also spent quite a bit of time in Stockton, California for his job, heading up SCAFCO Steel Stud Company’s acquisition of another company.
It was at the downtown condo — which lies in the boundaries of council District 1 — where Barrientos spent at least some of his nights.
“ After a long day and being with the kids, and then I would want to go somewhere, I would have time to reflect. I would go [to the condo] and spend the night and go back to work,” Barrientos said.
Though Barrientos told RANGE he considered the South Hill his home, two sources say that in meetings with Barrientos, he claimed he had recently lived downtown.
Former council member Lili Navarrete, who was appointed to the seat Barrientos is currently running for, said that she met with him at his request after she decided she was not going to run to represent District 2. At that meeting, Navarrete (who has since endorsed Barrientos’ opponent Kate Telis) said Barrientos told her he could “relate to homelessness” because he was getting a divorce and had to leave his house for about six months until he found a new home near his kids on the South Hill. She says he described living in an apartment downtown, presumably the condo he owned.
Council Member Paul Dillon, who would be Barrientos’ seatmate if elected and who has also endorsed Telis, said he had met Barrientos for coffee to discuss issues in the district and Barrientos mentioned recently living downtown.
For his part, Barrientos said he has never claimed to live downtown.
Legal considerations
In the city of Spokane, the charter states that candidates “must have been a resident of the city and of the appropriate council district, for the one year immediately preceding the time of filing as a candidate.”
The charter goes on to define “residency” as “a person’s permanent address where he or she physically resides and maintains his or her abode.”
According to Spokane County Election Manager Mike McLaughlin, it is up to candidates to determine whether or not their residency qualifies them to run. “We don’t have a way to verify that they’ve lived there,” he said.
Whether or not Barrientos’ living situation in 2024 to 2025 qualifies as residency would be up to the courts.
“If a question arises regarding a candidate’s residency and eligibility to file for office, the matter would require a legal challenge and a subsequent determination by a judge,” city spokesperson Erin Hut wrote in a statement to RANGE.
While candidates have been disqualified for residency issues in the recent past — once in 2021 who was also running for a District 2 seat and once in 2013 — both cases went to court before ballots had been sent out.
If a challenge comes earlier in the election process, like before ballots have been sent, a judge can order a candidate to be removed from the ballot, which has happened in the past. This late in the process, with ballots already sent though, the options are more limited, McLaughlin said.
If a case was filed with the court and a judge gave the verdict that the candidate was ineligible before ballots were counted, the Spokane County Elections Office would not count the votes for that candidate.
If the court’s findings didn’t come until after ballots were counted, and election results were announced, “ they don’t get to take the oath of office and then the jurisdiction would be able to appoint a person for that office,” McLaughlin said.
“ T he court’s the only one that can take a name off the ballot or tell us not to count the votes for that.”
At this point, no complaints have been filed with the court, but if a complaint is filed, Barrientos is ready for the fight.
“After I win and then this would be alleged, I would have to go to court and go through the process of trying to prove residency,” Barrientos said. “I mean, ballots are out. There’s probably going to be some procedure afterwards.”
Editor’s Note: An early version of this story said Barrientos filed to run in late April. That has been corrected – the WA Secretary of State records show he filed to run May 5, but he registered as a candidate with the Public Disclosure Commission in late April.
