Niko Battle and John Dimas in the Snohomish County Superior Court today.
Back in July My Everett News was the first to discover Niko Battle isn’t eligible for the Everett City Council District 4 position based off his voter registration records.
Our initial investigation discovered:
- Niko registered to vote in Snohomish County on May 7th, 2025, not meeting the 1-year voter registration requirement nor the 6-month district residency requirement.
- Niko Battle’s mailing address was Granite Falls, and his residency address was an apartment complex with, suspiciously, no unit # denoted.
- The original Lynnwood Times puff piece was full of inaccuracies. Niko Battle didn’t graduate from Wake Forest University with two degrees. According to the school, he dropped out in 2023 with no degrees.
- Many other inaccuracies we decided not to publish as it seemed unnecessary to highlight due to his voter registration issues.
Niko Battle’s official voter registration records showing a May 2025 date.
After we published our piece, Niko reached out to us claiming it was “misinformation.” We promptly sent him his own voter registration information we received from the election office and invited him to correct anything we wrote that was inaccurate. We never heard from him again, and he has ignored followup requests.
Instead, Niko Battle conducted an interview with the Snohomish County Tribune and claimed our statements were “false hogwash” and claimed “one of their opponents spoon-fed MyEverettNews the story to do a political smear, and the outlet went with it.” As noted in the piece, this is patently false—we did not communicate with another candidate and did the investigation on our own accord on all candidates after a candidate in a different race had recently dropped out for not meeting the residency requirements.
Further Declarations
Unfortunately, the City of Everett and the Snohomish County Auditor were slow to take action on the residency questions. The City of Everett finally requested a statement of residency requirement, but it had a deadline 5 days past the primary election. Most candidates returned it quickly, but Niko Battle didn’t turn his in until after the primary and didn’t include his district in the declaration. Two days past the deadline, he turned in a complete one.
Odd thing is, the signatures on the two forms don’t match. Plus if Niko was later found to be lying, this document is a declaration under the penalty of perjury.
Retracted Endorsements of Niko Battle
Mid-August, current council members Liz Vogeli and Paula Rhyne both asked Niko to remove their endorsements of him. Liz said she did her own research and found that he wasn’t eligible. Despite their retractions, Niko kept their endorsements of him up on his website, even today.
Finance Manager Statements
Battle’s former treasurer, Jacob Read, filed a complaint to the Public Disclosure Commission on several violations committed by Niko Battle including “malicious attempts to undermine the regulations.” Unusual restaurant bills, gas cards, knowingly violating media requests for data, and an unwillingness to share his address with his treasurer raised a lot of red flags.
Residency Challenge
Niko was the top vote getter in the primary, followed by Alan Rubio, which meant Luis Burbano was the odd man out. Burbano would need Niko’s eligibility to be challenged and settled in court before the September 10th print deadline.
John Dimas, president of SPEEA and resident of District 4, challenged Niko’s eligibility both with the Snohomish County Superior Court and the Snohomish County Auditor. Hearings took place on the 8th and 9th, just before the print deadline.
Active Georgia Voter registration
John Dimas provided thorough documentation, including:
- A written statement from the Sage Apartments manager that Niko did not reside there.
- Active Georgia voter registration
- Addresses and dates from background check data sources that showed Niko did not reside inside the city limits.
Judge Ruling
Niko did an excellent job in court, cleverly casting doubt on data from Dimas, but was very evasive on direct questions, suddenly suffering from amnesia when it came to his address on his tax records, and providing vague information how much he lived in the city.
Battle claimed he couch surfs, goes out of town for 3 months at a time, which may be true, but doesn’t exactly provide confidence that he would properly represent the residents of District 4, even if the judge ruled in his favor. After the ruling, several media members asked to see his drivers license, which he claimed had the Sage Apartments address, but he “didn’t have his wallet on him.” As if you can go to your own superior court hearing without your ID.
Ultimately, Snohomish Superior Court Judge Richard Okrent ruled the residency challenge was valid and that Niko Battle ineligible to run for the city council position. The judge explained how the position is supposed to represent the district and the fact that Niko provided no evidence of his residency. Not even a statement from a roommate, no pictures, no tax registration, no cell phone bills, no library card, nothing to show any evidence of living in the district.
City of Everett Statement
After the judgement, the City of Everett provided us this statement:
“The City of Everett has remained consistent in not taking a position on this matter, but we’re pleased it was resolved before ballots go to print.”
Snohomish County Auditor
Here’s an official statement from the Snohomish County Auditor’s office:
“Snohomish County Elections is aware that the Snohomish County Superior Court has issued a ruling regarding certain candidate eligibility challenges for the November General Election. At this time, we are awaiting the official written order from the court before proceeding with finalizing the list of candidates for the Everett City Council District 4 race.”
We will update the story when we can confirm that the printed ballots are correct.
Niko Battle told the media he plans to appeal the judgement.
September 9, 2025
Everett Government