PORT ANGELES — The race between Selinda Barkhuis, an attorney and planner challenging Clallam County Treasurer Judy Scott, was too close to call after the first wave of ballots came in Tuesday night.
Barkhuis’ 50.57 percent, or 8,098 votes, put her a hair ahead of Scott, who garnered 7,916 votes, or 49.43 percent in her bid for a second four-year term.
It may be days before the nonpartisan treasurer’s race is decided.
Though Clallam County Auditor Patty Rosand’s office had counted 18,889 ballots Tuesday night, it still had 8,531 uncounted ballots on hand.
Rosand will update the totals daily; she expects another 5,000 ballots to come in today and said she’ll release another count at 4:30 this afternoon.
The office had received 27,152 ballots, or 60.13 percent, of the 45,852 mailed by Tuesday night.
“It looks like I’m ahead. That’s about all you can say,” Barkhuis acknowledged.
“It’s a good start . . . I’m hoping for a little bit more clarity,” she said, adding that she’ll be biting her nails for at least a few more days.
“This has been a very good experience, either way,” added Barkhuis, 48. A senior planner for Clallam County, she has never held public office.
“I knew it was going to be stressful,” she said of her campaign.
Barkhuis, whose office is not far from Scott’s at the Clallam County Courthouse, has said she was appalled by the state Auditor’s Office investigation that revealed some $617,000 was stolen from the Treasurer’s Office, allegedly by former cashier Catherine Betts. The disappearance of funds occurred over a five-year period ending in May of last year, on Scott’s watch.
Scott should have done a better job monitoring her staff, Barkhuis has said.
Scott, 59, said she and her office “haven’t gotten the credit we deserved for our recovery.”
Her staff has worked hard, Scott said, and “we’ve handled it. Let’s move on.”
The incumbent described herself as disappointed but “thinking positive,” Tuesday night, while calling Barkhuis “more polished in the debates” during a campaign that grew fierce over the past few months.
The Clallam treasurer post pays between $64,212 and $70,872 annually, and has among its duties the collection of tax payments and assessments and the distribution of taxes to 22 taxing entities. It will collect and distribute an estimated $72 million in 2010.
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Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
