PORT ANGELES — Michael Merideth topped the field with Marolee Smith second in the initial primary election returns tonight in the three-person Position 5 City Council primary race.
The two are headed to the Nov. 3 general election in the nonpartisan contest to succeed Mayor Dan Di Guilio, who is not running for re-election to the four-year position.
Merideth, 42 on Nov. 3 and a truck driver for Bruch & Bruch Construction of Port Angeles, had 822 votes, or 46.65 percent.
Smith, 60 on Election Day and a writer, author and researcher, had 618 votes, or 35.07 percent.
Pak, a software engineer-consultant, had 322 votes, or 18.27 percent.
Merideth was “pleasantly surprised” he was the top vote-getter, he said after the results were posted shortly after 8 p.m.
“I didn’t sense I’d be at the top, but I had a feeling I would make it through the primary,” he said.
He attributed his success to word of mouth and though he might do well by the number of people who told him they were voting for him.
Merideth said it helped, too, that he grew up in Port Angeles
Smith could not be reached tonight for comment.
Pak said tonight he was not disappointed by his showing.
“If they really want to take up a tough job, they are welcome to it,” Pak said of his opponents.
“I ran because I wanted to make a difference,” he added.
Ballots were mailed July 15 to 43,544 registered voters countywide, including 11,389 city residents eligible to vote in the City Council primary.
Ballots received countywide by mail and from drop boxes as of Monday were counted today.
There were 1,762 ballots from city residents counted for the Position 5 race.
The Elections Office counted 11,457 ballots countywide today for sa voter turnout of 26.32 percent.
Auditor Shoona Riggs said her office had about 2,000 ballots on hand that were not counted.
She expects between 1,000 and 2,000 more to arrive this week.
Ballots from Tuesday through Friday will be counted by 4:30 p.m. Friday, she said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
