PORT ANGELES — After a second round of ballot counting today (Friday), Max Mania now leads Edna Petersen by 31 votes for Port Angeles City Council Position 2.
Mania, a grocery clerk and writer, was trailing Petersen, owner of Necessities and Temptations gift shop, by 11 votes in ballot counting Tuesday night.
Friday’s count gave Mania a total of 2,706 votes (50.3 percent) to Petersen’s 2,675 (49.7 percent)
About 2,000 more ballots will be counted Monday.
In other Port Angeles races, Brooke Nelson, 37, a real estate agent, widened her lead against incumbent Betsy Wharton, 49.
After being ahead by 13 votes Tuesday, Nelson is now in front of Wharton, who serves as the city’s deputy mayor, by 119 votes for City Council Position 4 — Nelson, 2,732 (51.1 percent) to Wharton’s 2,613 (48.9 percent).
In the other races, Larry Little increased his lead over Cody Blevins for City Council Position 1. Little’s total is now 2,722 (53.3 percent) to Blevins’ 2,384 (46.7 percent).
Patrick Downie secured a victory over Harry Bell for City Council Position 3 after Tuesday’s vote count and now leads by more than 300 votes. As of today (Friday), Downie has 2,590 (53.9 percent) to Bell’s 2,217 (46.1 percent).
Brad Collins now leads in the race for the Position 3 seat on the three-member Port of Port Angeles board of commissioners.
Collins is ahead of incumbent John Calhoun by 156 votes. Collins has 8,693 votes (50.6 percent) to Calhoun’s 8,497 (49.4 percent).
Calhoun held a 48-vote lead Tuesday night, when 12,374 ballots were counted.
Ted Miller, a retired CIA analyst and attorney, unseated longtime Sequim City Council member and former mayor Walt Schubert after Tuesday’s vote count.
Miller increased his vote count today (Friday), with 663 votes for Schubert (34.4 percent) and 1,265 votes for Miller (65.6 percent).
There were no other substantial changes in the other election races. Click on http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/CLALLAM/ELECTIONS/Pages/ElectionResults.aspx for full election results as of today (Friday).
Election officials said 6,909 ballots were counted today (Friday), all of them ballots that arrived Tuesday and Wednesday.
Shoona Radon, election supervisor, says “hundreds” of ballots were returned with write-in candidates, which slowed the counting process.
As a result, 2,001 ballots that arrived in the mail Thursday and about 30 ballots that came in Friday will be counted Monday.
Most of the remaining ballots are from the Forks and Sequim areas.
In-depth coverage of the results of today’s (Friday’s) vote count — with reaction from the candidates — will be in Sunday’s Peninsula Daily News and at www.peninsuladailynews.com.
