Aberdeen City Council incumbent Alan Richrod trails challenger Robert Jerrick Rodgers by two votes in the latest ballot count provided by the Grays Harbor County Auditor Thursday.
Rodgers leads 75-73, with 50.68 percent of the vote. There won’t be another count until Tuesday, and it’s unclear how many ballots remain to be tallied at this point.
Richrod’s fellow incumbents, Karen Rowe and Tawni Andrews, are comfortably ahead in their races against Janae M. Chhith and Dick Murchy, respectively. Rowe garnered 77 percent of the vote in her race, Andrews 59 percent in hers.
In Hoquiam, Bill Nelson has wrapped up the Ward 3 Position 6 city council race with nearly 68 percent of the vote. This was the only contested race on the ballot for Hoquiam City Council.
In the North River School District Position 2 race, which was too close to call before Thursday’s count, now has Brian Carbaugh pulling away from Carolyn Lande with more than 72 percent of the Grays Harbor vote. The Pacific County vote won’t be tallied again until Monday — the two candidates remain deadlocked at nine votes apiece.
There were some tightly contested city council races in Ocean Shores. Susan Conniry has a 94-vote lead over John Lynn for Position 1 — 1,124-1,030. Lisa Briebel leads Shannon Rubin for Position 3, 1,078-942. The Position 5 race appears to be wrapped up by Steve Ensley, who holds a 1,130-877 vote lead over Randy Scott. Robert Crumpacker also appears to be the winner of the Position 7 contest, leading Carlos Roldan 1,156-862.
The Aberdeen School District contests have been decided, with Jennifer Durney taking 60 percent of the vote over challenger Devin Backholm in the Position 1 race, and challenger William Dyer taking nearly 62 percent of the vote against incumbent Jamie Walsh’s 38 percent. The only contested Hoquiam School District race had incumbent Christie Goodenough reaping more than 75 percent of the vote as she cruised to victory over challenger Elizabeth Zaborac.
In Cosmopolis, the school district Director District 1 race is too close to call. As of Thursday, Tina Miles led Barbie Smith by four votes, 253-249. In District 2, Wayne Cotton has a 288-246 lead over Lisa Garity, and the Director District 4 at-large race is going Dave Palmer’s way; he has a 300-218 vote advantage over Cindy Grenier.
Most of the fire district races have been decided, except for District 17, which covers the Humptulips/Axford Prairie area of the county. One vote separates Calvin Pierce III from Bruce Brown, with Pierce leading 43-42.
According to the auditor’s office, 14,332 ballots have been counted as of Thursday. With 41,123 registered voters in the county, that makes for a turnout of just under 35 percent.
