PORT ANGELES — Bill Peach led Sissi Bruch on Tuesday in their race to become the next Clallam County commissioner.
Peach had 8,785 votes to Bruch’s 8,346 votes — a 51.28 percent to 48.72 percent edge — on election night Tuesday.
Peach, a Forks Republican, and Bruch, a Port Angeles Democrat, are vying to replace longtime Commissioner Mike Doherty, D-Port Angeles, who will retire at the end of the this year.
“I like it,” Peach said of the early returns. “Very much.”
Peach said he expected a close race and predicted more support coming in the form of late-arriving West End ballots in Friday’s count.
Bruch told her supporters to “hang in there.”
“I think it’s going to be a really, really close race,” she said.
Bruch recalled that Doherty once trailed on Election Night but made up the difference in the second count en route to victory.
“It’ll be interesting,” she said.
Bruch, 54, of Port Angeles, is a senior planner for the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and a Port Angeles City Council member.
Peach, 59, of Forks, is a retired forester and former executive director of the Quileute tribe.
The commissioners’ seat represents District 3, which extends from west Port Angeles to the West End. The general election vote was by the entire county.
Peach thanked his supporters for “voting on the issues and my position rather than listening to special interests, and especially negativity.”
“My platform’s pretty simple: work as hard as possible to see more family wage jobs,” Peach added.
The Clallam County Auditor’s Office counted 18,242 ballots Tuesday out of 46,908 issued for a voter turnout of 38.9 percent, Auditor Patty Rosand said.
The Auditor’s Office received 3,952 ballots in the mail and in drop boxes on Tuesday. Those were not counted, but brought voter turnout to 47.13 percent.
Rosand expects 7,000 more ballots to come in by Wednesday, “and then it’s going to trickle off,” she said.
The next count of the approximately 11,000 ballots has been scheduled for Friday, Rosand said.
The three county commissioners pass a general fund budget that in 2014 is $32.4 million and which covers 364 full-time-equivalent positions.
They also set a tax levy, approve ordinances, serve on regional and statewide boards and hire and fire employees.
The District 3 commissioner will earn $67,189 in 2015.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
