A hand recount will decide a Port of Port Angeles race, while Max Mania has won a Port Angeles City Council seat by 41 votes, the Clallam County Auditor’s Office announced after a final tally of Nov. 3 general election ballots Tuesday.
The ballots in the port race, in which port commission President John Calhoun leads challenger Brad Collins by 21 votes, will be counted by hand from Dec. 2 to Dec. 4, said Clallam County Auditor Patty Rosand, who added that the staff will prepare the ballots for the recount in the meantime.
The recount — triggered automatically by the close vote — will cost between $4,000 and $5,000, which the port will pay, Rosand said.
Both candidates are eager for the race to be decided.
“It [the delay] is a drain for our supporters and for the candidates,” Calhoun said.
Collins, a former city of Port Angeles community development director and the current deputy director at Serenity House of Clallam County, said, “We have been ready for this election to be over for some time for sure.”
The recount will be in the Clallam County Emergency Operations Center in the basement of the courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
Tuesday’s count of 32 ballots followed Clallam County Canvassing Board decisions on Monday about which challenged ballots — those with missing or invalid signatures or other issues — they would accept.
Total ballots cast in the election are 25,698 out of 45,739 registered voters, for a voter turnout of 56.18.
Calhoun had 9,295 votes, or 50.06 percent, while Collins has 9,274 votes, or 49.94 percent.
A race that ends within a quarter of a percentage point goes to an automatic hand recount, while any race that ends with less than a half of a percentage-point difference goes to an automatic machine recount, according to state law.
Mania-Petersen
Mania was looking ahead to serving on Tuesday.
He received 2,737 votes, or 50.38 percent.
His opponent, Edna Petersen, who served on the City Council as an appointee from 2006 to 2008, received 2,696 votes, or 49.62 percent.
The difference between them — .76 percent — was not enough to trigger an automatic machine recount.
“It’s a fairly nice outcome after working so hard,” said Mania, a grocery clerk and writer who sits on the board of several organizations that promote the arts,
“I take this [position] very seriously,” he added.
“It’s more than a full-time job. It’s going to be the center of my life.”
The contest was the second council race that Petersen has lost. The first was against current council member Dan Di Guilio, who challenged her in the 2007 general election.
While she has made no decision as to whether she will run for a political office again, Petersen — who owns Necessities & Temptations gift shop, is a member of several civic organizations and was the co-chair of “Our Community at Work — Painting Downtown” — said she intends to remain active in the community.
“This is my community and I believe in it,” she said. “I’ve always worked hard for it. I’ll continue to do that.”
Petersen said Tuesday that she intended to congratulate Mania by the end of the day even though she thinks that he didn’t run a fair campaign.
‘Old Chicago politics’
She called what she considered to be personal attacks “old Chicago politics.”
“I’m proud of the campaign I ran,” she said. “I didn’t tell any untruths about anybody, family or friends.”
As an example of what she considered to be unfair campaign tactics, Petersen recalled an October candidate forum where Mania alleged that she violated Port Angeles’ municipal code regarding conflicts of interest while on the City Council when she voted on contracts that went to Primo Construction, a company that her son works for as a superintendent.
Petersen defended herself against the allegation at the forum by saying that she cleared herself of any conflict of interest, under advice from City Attorney Bill Bloor, by announcing publicly before the votes that her son works for Primo Construction. This was confirmed by City Council meeting minutes.
Won’t apologize for error
Mania’s allegation included one factual error — which Mania declined to apologize for Tuesday.
At the forum, Mania said a contract was for construction of The Gateway transit center, a source of some public criticism.
Meeting minutes provided by Mania showed that the contracts that he was concerned with were for two sewer construction projects unrelated to The Gateway.
On Tuesday when asked about the error, Mania said he didn’t think he needed to apologize because the “crux of the issue” was that Petersen voted on contracts that went to a company that her son works for.
Mania said that Petersen still should have recused herself from the vote.
“The fact is, whether he [Bloor] OKs it or not, it can create a perception that a fix is intended,” he said.
Mania said he ran a positive campaign and disagreed with Petersen’s characterization of it.
“I think I’m in general always a cordial and fair person,” he said.
Mania said that if he remains on the boards of the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Friends of the Fine Arts Center, and Port Angeles Arts Council, he will recuse himself from any votes involving those organizations.
County agreements
Although his wife, Dale Holiday, is a Clallam County planner, Mania said he doesn’t think he will need to recuse himself from a vote on agreements with the county. But he added that he will if someone requests him to do so.
The canvassing board is made up of Rosand, Clallam County Prosecutor Deb Kelly and Clallam County commission chairman Mike Doherty.
Sitting in for Doherty on Tuesday was commissioner Steve Tharinger.
Rosand said Doherty initially chose commissioner Mike Chapman to take his place while he was out of town, but that Tharinger was chosen instead after Holiday voiced concern over a potential conflict of interest since Chapman supported Petersen.
Neither Mania nor Holiday could be reached for comment on that on Tuesday.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
