CHIMACUM — The present ballot count requires a recount by hand of votes in the Chimacum School Board District 3 race — unless challenged ballots change the results of the Aug. 5 primary election.
The state requires ballots to be counted by hand if the difference in votes between two candidates is less than 150 votes and less than one quarter of 1 percent of the total votes cast.
The votes counted so far in the District 3 race has shown that Kristina Mayer, 66, will win a place on the Nov. 5 general election ballot with 1,355 votes, but the race for the other name on the ballot is too close to call.
Steve Martin, 47, has 500 votes and Gary Frogner, 66, has 501 votes.
The race for Martin — the owner of NW Landworks Inc., of Chimacum — and Frogner — retired senior director of West Coast operations for Concurrent Technologies Corp., in Pennsylvania — could be determined by hand recount, due to the one-vote difference.
The winner would join Mayer on the Nov. 5 ballot.
However there were 122 contested ballots that lacked a signature that have yet to be officially certified.
Some of the challenged ballots already have been addressed by those residents who needed to sign, but their vote won’t be counted until Monday, after pre-certification, said Quinn Grewell, election coordinator in the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office.
Voters have until 4:30 p.m. Monday to resolve problems with their challenged ballots.
Voters can check the status of their ballots at VoteWa.gov.
There will be a vote count update after the vote per-certification Monday, but the vote won’t be officially certified until Tuesday at 4 p.m, Grewell said.
After the vote certification, if the vote counts still meets the need for a recount, the certification board will set the date and time for that and if it will be a hand recount, or a machine count, Grewell said.
“At this time, its likely to be a hand count,” Grewell said.
There were 2,549 votes cast in the Chimacum primary, with 46 write-ins, 27 over-votes (ballots that were cast with more than one candidate selected) and 207 under-votes (ballots submitted with no candidate chosen).
Candidate Jeremy Perrott, a 21-year-old student, received 193 votes and is eliminated from the election.
Three Chimacum School Board positions will be elected in the Nov. 5 general election. This is the only race that was contested with more than two candidates, and so was included in the top-two primary election to pare the contenders down from four to two.
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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5 or at [email protected].
