Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Washington's voters went to the polls and have almost concluded their first ever top-two primary election on Tuesday.
The top two candidates in each race advance to the general election no matter their party affiliation. Wahkiakum voters had a few of those races to settle.
County Auditor and chief elections officer Diane Tischer said election workers counted 1,435 ballots on Tuesday; they reconvened Wednesday morning to count approximately 200 more as The Eagle went to press, and those tallies could change some of Tuesday's results. They'll count the rest later this month.
Early results were:
Sheriff: Jon Dearmore polled 1,069 votes; Troy E. Norris had 183, and Josh Grasseth, a write-in candidate, 122. All ran as Independent candidates.
Commissioner, Wahkiakum PUD: Esther Gregg, the incumbent, 149, Dennis R. Reid 123, and Pam Anderson 112.
Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow, a Democrat appeared on the printed ballot alone and drew 928 votes, 92.25 percent of the votes cast in the race. However, one of two write-in votes has a chance of advancing to the general election ballot. Voters gave Puget Island resident Dennis Gordon 13 votes and Cathlamet attorney Jennifer Hanigan 12 votes.
Gordon advertised himself as a write-in candidate for district court judge or prosecuting attorney.Hanigan has indicated no interest in running for the office.
A write-in must draw 1 percent of the votes cast in an election to advance, Tischer said Tuesday, and at that point, both Gordon and Hanigan had over 10 votes, 1 percent.
Tischer added that she is checking with state elections officials to confirm her understanding of the election rules.
Other local races had only one or two candidates. These elections will be settled on the general election ballot:
County commissioner: Blair H. Brady, incumbent 234; Lori Scott, Independent 155.
Assessor: Bill Coons D 699, 51.4 percent; Sulema Zerr R, 652, 47.94 percent.
Auditor: Tischer D 1,085.
County Clerk: Kay M. Holland D, incumbent, 1079.
Treasurer: Paula Holloway D, incumbent, 1044.
Legislative and state races (regional or state vote percentages in parentheses):
Representative, Dist. 19, Position 1: Dean Takko D, incumbent, 800 (58.8 percent); Kurt Swanson R 548 (41.2).
Representative, Dist. 19, Position 2: Brian E. Blake D, incumbent, 730 (58.09); Tim Sutinen R 575 (41.91).
US Representative, District 3: Jaime Herrera R 387 (27.16); Denny Heck D 376 (31.5); Cheryl Crist D 176 (11.45); David W. Hedrick R 120(13.77); David B. Castillo R 111(11.98); Norma Jean Stevens I 77 4.15).
US Senator: Patty Murray D, incumbent, 563 (46.04); Dino Rossi R 501 (33.98); Clint Didier 147 (11.99).
Judicial races, which are settled if one candidate draws over 50 percent of the vote:
State Supreme Court, Position 1: Jim Johnson, incumbent, 617 (62.99), Stan Rumbaugh 266 (37.01).
State Supreme Court, Position 5: Barbara Madsen (incumbent) 760 (100).
State Supreme Court, Position 6: Richard B. Sanders, incumbent, 441 (47.77), Charlie Wiggins 237 (39.26), and Bryan Chushcoff 100 (12.97).
Court of Appeals, Position 2: Jill M. Johanson 716 (69.81), Joseph Daggy 260 (30.19).
Of the county's 2,640 registered voters, 1,435 cast ballots, 54.36 percent, the second highest percentage in the state among counties.
Statewide, only 26.58 percent of voters cast ballots in the primary.
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