PORT ANGELES — Nearly all of the ballots are in and the Clallam County primary election has been decided.
No primary races flipped Friday when the Clallam County Auditor’s Office tabulated 1,628 late-arriving primary ballots.
The next count will take place next Friday, said Becky Pettigrew, Clallam County elections manager.
The primary election — which determines the top two vote-getters who will advance to the general election — will be certified Aug. 20.
What’s left
“What will be left to count will be anything that was mailed by Election Day but took a while to get to us (such as from our military and overseas voters), along with any ballots that had been challenged (such as for the voter forgetting to sign their ballot) but that were later ‘cured’ by the voter submitting a signed form to us,” Pettigrew said in a Friday email.
The top-two vote-getters in the primary advance to the Nov. 5 general election.
In the closest primary contest, Brendan Meyer led former Port Angeles resident Tara Martin Lopez by 14 votes Friday in the race for second place for Port Angeles City Council Position 7.
Martha Cunningham won the most votes: 1,212 votes. Meyer had 911 votes and Lopez had 897.
Lopez moved to New Mexico to pursue a job opportunity last month.
It was too late to remove her name from the primary ballot.
As of Friday, Meyer and Lopez were separated by 0.77 percent of the votes cast in their head-to-head matchup.
State law requires an automatic recount if two candidates are separated by less than 0.5 percent, County Auditor Shoona Riggs has said.
“I’m honored to be moving forward in the race for position 7,” Meyer said in a Friday text message.
“As the only candidate to regularly attend City Council meetings and Planning Commission meetings before registering to run for the seat I am happy the voters will now have a choice to vote for someone who is ready to stand up for what’s good and fight for what’s right.
“I care for this city and I believe the future of our city depends on us working together today while rejecting hate,” Meyer added.
Here is where the other Clallam County races stood after Friday’s tabulation.
• Charlie McCaughan and Doc Robinson advanced to the general election in the race for Port Angeles City Council Position 5.
McCaughan had 1,554 votes, Robinson had 846 votes and Artur Wojnowski had 641 votes.
• Mike Gilstrap and Danny Smith will vie for Forks City Council Position 5.
Gilstrap had 205 votes, Smith had 154 votes and Christina Kohout had 49 votes.
• Ann Marie Henninger and Nate Adkisson were leading Warren Pierce in the race for a Sequim-area Olympic Medical Center commissioner seat.
Henninger had 8,299 votes, Adkisson had 3,307 votes and Pierce had 2,513 votes.
• Steve Hopf and Keith Cortner will be on the general election ballot in the race for Clallam County Fire District No. 2 commissioner.
Hopf had 982 votes, Cortner had 406 votes and Richard Ruud had 220 votes.
• In the beauty contest for the Sequim-area District 1 Clallam County commission seat, Mark Ozias, a Democrat, was leading Republican challenger Brandon Janisse 5,185 votes to 3,317 votes.
Ozias and Janisse each advanced to the general election.
Partisan races must be included on the top-two primary ballots even if only two candidates have filed.
Ozias’s primary victory means his name will appear first on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Countywide voter turnout was 30.64 percent as of Friday’s count.
The Auditor’s Office had received 15,612 of the 50,956 ballots mailed to registered voters.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@ peninsuladailynews.com.
