More than half of Jefferson County’s registered voters handed in their ballots in Tuesday’s presidential primary election, making the county tops in the state for voter turnout.
Thursday’s second round of ballot-counting in the all-mail election found that the turnout in Jefferson County was 51.76 percent, with 14,248 ballots counted out of 27,528 provided voters.
Clallam County’s voter turnout was 35.82 percent, with 20,494 ballots counted out of 57,217 provided voters, after a third count on Thursday.
Both counties surpassed the state turnout of 30.45 percent.
The Clallam County Auditor’s Office still had 5,000 ballots on hand after Thursday’s count and will tabulate more today.
Jefferson County’s Thursday count was the last before certification on March 22.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump won their respective primaries both statewide and on the North Olympic Peninsula. They were the only candidates on the Washington state ballot that had not suspended their campaigns.
In Jefferson County, Biden won 8,531 votes, or 86.54 percent of the 9,973 Democratic Party votes cast. Uncommitted delegates drew the next largest number of votes: 804 votes, or 8.06 percent, followed by Marianne Williamson’s 252 votes, or 2.53 percent, and Dean Phillips’ 170 votes, or 1.7 percent. Write-ins numbered 216 votes, or 2.17 percent.
Trump took 2,819 votes, or 66.19 percent. Closest runner-up was Nikki Haley, with 1,226 votes, or 28.79 percent. She was followed by Chris Christie’s 91 votes, or 2.14 percent; Ron DeSantis’ 77 votes, or 1.81 percent; and Vivek Ramaswamy’s 18 votes, or 0.42 percent. Write-ins numbered 28. Total Republican votes were 4,259.
In Clallam County, after a third count of ballots on Thursday, Biden won 9,118 votes, or 8.93 percent. Uncommitted delegates received 436 votes, or 4.25 percent. Phillips won 318 votes, or 3.1 percent, and Williamson won 256 votes, or 2.5 percent. Write-in votes totaled 125, or 1.22 percent. Total Democratic votes were 10,253.
Trump took 7,723 votes, or 75.6 percent; while Haley took 2,100 votes, or 20.56 percent. DeSantis won 162 votes, or 1.59 percent; Christie won 107 votes, or 1.05 percent; and Ramaswamy took 80 votes, or 0.78 percent. Write-in votes numbered 43, or 0.42 percent. Total Republican votes were 10,215.
The vote for “uncommitted delegates, a protest vote of Biden’s policy concerning Israel and Gaza won 71,683 votes, or 9.09 percent, statewide as of Thursday.
At least 15 percent of votes in Washington’s Democratic primary needed to be cast for uncommitted delegates for the state to send an unpledged delegate pool to the DNC.
The Washington state Democratic convention will be June 22 in Bellevue, with the national convention Aug. 19-22 in Chicago. The Washington state Republican convention will be April 18-20 in Spokane, with the national convention July 15-18 in Milwaukee.
Washington state has 12 electoral votes.
Additional information can be found at the Jefferson County Auditor’s website, co.jefferson.wa.us/1266/Elections or at 360-385-9117 and at the Clallam County Auditor’s website at https://www.clallam countywa.gov/162/Elections-Voter- Registration or 360-417-2217.