PORT ANGELES — Jim McEntire was leading Linda Barnfather by slightly more than 4 percentage points Tuesday night in the race to replace Steve Tharinger on the Board of Clallam County Commissioners.
McEntire, a Republican from Sequim, had 52.06 percent of the vote after 16,960 ballots were tallied.
McEntire had 8,830 votes compared to Barnfather, a Sequim Democrat, who garnered 8,130 votes, or 47.94 percent.
“I am very gratified and humbled that the public has shown confidence in my campaign,” McEntire said in a telephone interview from his home.
“Of course, this is tentative.”
McEntire said he was not prepared to declare victory.
“We’ll kind of wait until more definitive results are known,” McEntire said.
Barnfather said she is optimistic that the late-arriving ballots will push the tally to her favor.
“We did a really good push to get out the vote over the weekend,” Barnfather said in a telephone interview from her home.
“We’re saying it’s too close to call. There are too many ballots out there still.”
The Clallam County Auditor’s Office had 3,951 ballots left to count Tuesday night.
With more coming in the mail and plucked out of drop boxes, Auditor Patty Rosand said there will be about 5,000 to process Thursday.
Clallam County voter turnout was 46.8 percent on election night.
Rosand said 21,395 out of 45,731 registered voters had returned a ballot by Tuesday afternoon.
McEntire, 61, is a Port of Port Angeles commissioner and retired U.S. Coast Guard officer.
Barnfather, 48, is a legislative aid to state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim.
Tharinger, who is also a 24th District state representative, has served three four-year terms at the county. The Sequim Democrat announced last spring that he would not seek another term as a county commissioner and would instead focus on serving the entire district.
The 24th District covers Clallam and Jefferson counties and the northern half of Grays Harbor County.
“I expect to have another heavy return tomorrow and hope that we end up with at least a 55 percent voter turnout for this election,” Rosand said in an email.
McEntire said history has shown that preliminary results are a good indicator of how a commissioners race will wind up.
He said he is “looking forward to serving the public in a new way.”
“Congratulations to Linda Barnfather on a strong campaign,” McEntire said.
“It takes a lot of courage and fortitude to stand for public office.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
