PORT ANGELES — Incumbent City Council member and former Mayor Cherie Kidd led in the voting against veterans advocate and fluoridation opponent Dan Bateham for Position 7, according to Election Night totals.
Kidd, 69, a Port Angeles High School graduate and owner of AAA Affordable Storage and U-Haul, had 1,417 votes, or 56.05 percent, to Bateham’s 1,111 votes, or 43.95 percent on Tuesday night, with thousands of votes still uncounted.
In the other nonpartisan contested Port Angeles City Council race on the ballot, Michael Merideth had 1,402 votes, or 59.06 percent, to Marolee Smith’s 972 votes, or 40.94 percent, on Tuesday.
Smith conceded the race to Merideth once the Clallam County Auditor’s Office released the first round of totals on Election Night.
The Auditor’s Office counted 13,761 ballots countywide on Tuesday night out of 47,481 mailed to registered voters, for a voter turnout of 29 percent in the all-mail election, Auditor Shoona Riggs said.
Another 3,998 ballots were processed but not counted Tuesday and perhaps 2,000 to 3,000 more were placed in drop boxes and await processing, she said.
More ballots are likely to arrive in the mail.
The next count will be by 4:30 p.m. Friday.
Merideth, 42 and a truck driver, and Smith, a 60-year-old writer, author and researcher, are running for the Position 5 seat held by Mayor Dan Di Guilio.
Both are political newcomers.
Bateham had filed for the four-year seat in May, announced on Sept. 9 he was withdrawing — although his name remained on the ballot — and then re-entered the race Oct. 20, a week after ballots were mailed to voters.
“I’m in a wonderful mood,” Kidd said Tuesday night.
“I expect my lead to hold and I am anxious to keep serving the people of Port Angeles.
“I’m just thrilled to death, thrilled to death.”
After Bateham re-entered the race, “he never gave me a scare,” Kidd said.
“I just kept getting my message out and the people wanted someone they know and trust.”
Bateham, 58, was not ready to concede Tuesday night.
“I do feel I still have a chance,” he said.
“Not all the votes are counted yet.”
Like Kidd, Merideth said he believes his lead will hold.
When he saw the 430-vote spread between him and Smith, “I was pretty happy about that,” he recalled.
He called Smith and “thanked her for a very friendly race,” Merideth said.
Smith said she expected Merideth would win.
“He’ll be a perfect City Council member,” she said. “We don’t disagree on much. I completely support him.”
Smith said she intends to run for a City Council position in two years.
“I wanted to see how it’s done,” she said of her efforts in the election.
Incumbent Sissi Bruch had 1,753 votes in running uncontested for her Position 6 seat.
The mayor, elected by the City Council, receives $650 per month; the deputy mayor, also elected by the council, receives $600 a month.
All other council members receive $550 a month.
The council passes a general fund operating budget that for 2015 is $20 million, hires a city manager who is responsible for supervising a work force of 240 full-time equivalent positions, adopts ordinances, approves contracts and levies taxes.
There were 11,239 eligible city voters as of Sept. 23.
Seventeen ballots will go to the canvassing board for a ruling before the Nov. 24 certification of the election.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
