PORT ANGELES — Nina Napiontek is leading Navarra Carr by only two votes for Position 6 on the Port Angeles City Council and Karin Ashton is ahead of Greg Bellamy Sr., by only three votes for a seat on Clallam Bay Fire District commission after the sixth count of general election ballots on Tuesday.
Napiontek had 2,499 votes, or 49.82 percent to Carr’s 2,497 votes, or 49.78 percent, a difference of 0.04 percent.
Ashton, an appointee on the panel, had 117 votes, or 50.43 percent, to Bellamy’s 114 votes, or 49.14 percent, a difference of 0.29 percent.
That could trigger mandatory machine recounts if the margins do not change in today’s count of another 325 ballots.
A mandatory machine recount for non-statewide races is required when the difference between candidates is less than 2,000 and also less than one-half of 1 percent of the total number of votes cast for both candidates, according to the Washington Secretary of State.
The Auditor’s Office counted another 1,585 ballots on Tuesday for a voter turnout of 51.31 percent,, or 27,651 ballots out of the 53,887 provided registered voters.
Jefferson County reported a 57.8 percent voter turnout with 14,962 ballots returned out of the 25,867 provided registered voters. Jefferson County’s next count will be by 4 p.m. Friday. About 988 ballots remain to be counted, Grewell said.
Outcomes in all races in Clallam County remained the same after today’s count.
State law requires daily counts of ballots in counties with populations over 75,000. The U.S. Census Bureau released an estimate of 76,737 people living in Clallam County as of July 1, 2018.
A count was conducted on Saturday because the office was closed on Monday for Veterans Day, she said.
In races shared by voters in both Clallam and Jefferson counties:
• Challenger William (Bill) Miano won the Fire District 3’s Position 3 seat over incumbent James Barnfather.
• Jim Stoffer won the Sequim School Board District 3 seat against Beth Smithson.
• Steve Hopf won the county Fire District 2, Position 3 seat against Keith Cortner.
• Fire District 3’s proposition to renew an emergency medical services levy passed.
