PORT TOWNSEND — Brinnon Fire District Commissioner Ken McEdwards has retained his seat, while Richard Quinnell is the apparent winner for the Gardiner Cemetery District commission — although that race could go to a recount.
The two races were the only contests that were too close to call after Thursday’s count of outstanding ballots from last week’s general election. The margins were so close that Jefferson County Auditor Donna Eldridge said then that both seemed headed for mandatory machine recounts.
But after 82 ballots were tallied today (Tuesday), both men took the lead, with only the Gardiner race close enough that one outstanding ballot might change the need for a recount after the election is certified Nov. 24.
McEdwards now has 311 votes, or 50.98 percent, while Mike Eastman has 299 votes, or 49.02 percent.
In the Gardiner cemetery district race, Quinnell has 71 votes, or 51.08 percent, to McCauley’s 68 votes, or 48.92 percent.
“Even though Mr. Quinnell looks to be the apparent winner, I would not call the cemetery district race yet,” Eldridge said.
In the Brinnon race, however, “I would say that Mr. McEdwards has won that race,” she added.
The auditor’s office has three ballots still in hand, two provisional and one that came in the mail today, Eldridge said.
It also has 29 ballots with missing or invalid signatures. Voters who returned those ballots have been notified, and must contact the auditor’s office at the Jefferson County Courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend, by Nov. 23 to resolve the problems.
Of the challenged ballots, two are from the Brinnon district, while one would affect the Gardiner Cemetery race.
That one vote, were it cast for McCauley, could tip the margin of votes in that race into a madatory recount, Eldrdige said.
All other races have been decided.
“The only thing that could possibly happen could be a recount in the cemetary district,” Eldridge said.
Any race that ends with less than a half of a percentage-point difference goes to an automatic machine recount.
A race that ends within a quarter of a percentage point goes to an automatic hand recount, said David Ammons, spokesman for the state Secretary of State.
Countywide voter turnout in the general election is 64.63 percent, with 14,208 ballots returned out of 21,983 mailed to registered voters.
Click on http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/jefferson/ElectionResults/Pages/ElectionResults.aspx for full election results as of today (Tuesday).
In-depth coverage of the results of today’s vote count will be in the Wednesday’s Peninsula Daily News at www.penisnuladailynews.com.
