Corby Somerville was leading Bill Hannan and Tim Fraser as the first round of vote counting ended Tuesday night in the race for Port of Port Angeles District 1 commissioner.
Somerville, former marketing vice president for PRIME — Pacific Rim Industrial & Marine Engineering — received 1,457 votes, or 39.4 percent.
Hannan, manager of a loan program that helps fledgling businesses, had 1,343 votes, 36.3 percent.
Fraser, the owner of J.P. Cabinets, was a distant third with 897 votes, or 24.2 percent of the vote.
The top two vote-getters will advance to the Nov. 6 general election to battle over the seat being vacated by retiring Port Commissioner Jack Waud.
The Port commission’s District 1 covers the Sequim area.
The vote count will resume Friday and will include late ballots that were mailed and postmarked Tuesday or dropped into county lockboxes by 8 p.m. Tuesday night.
A total of 10,895 ballots, or about 26.5 percent of the 41,120 mail-in ballots sent out Aug. 29, had been returned as of Tuesday.
Election officials counted 8,571 of those ballots Tuesday night.
In the three other primary election races in which the top two vote getters will go to the general election ballot:
* Joseph F. Murray was leading Nancy Lynn Newman and Ryan Kent Smith for Clallam County Conservation District supervisor.
Murray received 3,379 votes, or 43.1 percent, as of Tuesday’s count. Newman had 2,677 votes, or 34.2 percent. Smith was a distant third with 1,772 votes, or 22.6 percent.
* Connie J. Lawrence was leading Marv Chastain and John D. Borah for Olympic Memorial Hospital District 3 (west Port Angeles) Position 1 commissioner.
Lawrence, the appointed incumbent, had 875 votes, or 46.9 percent. Chastain received 701 votes, or 37.6 percent, and Borah had 288 votes as of Tuesday night, or 15.4 percent.
* Wesley P. Short was leading Frank E. Clatanoff, Richard Houts and Jay Edwin Ketchum for Fire Protection District 3 (Sequim area) Position 1 commissioner.
Short received 1,327 votes, or 32.6 percent; Clatanoff, the incumbent, received 1,071, or 26.3 percent.
Houts was trailing, with 958 votes, or 23.5 percent. Ketchum received 708 votes, or 17.4 percent.
This full story is in today’s Clallam County edition of the Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get your PDN delivered to your home or office.
