PORT TOWNSEND — A second count of Jefferson County ballots was planned today while, on Wednesday, a district judge candidate conceded.
John Hynson, 58 — who took only 658 votes, or 7.98 percent, for the Jefferson County District Court judge race in Tuesday’s initial primary election ballot count — conceded Wednesday and endorsed Richard Suryan.
A second count of 1,871 ballots will take place at 1 p.m. today in the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office.
These are ballots that were delivered Tuesday or Wednesday.
Two of the four candidates for the judgeship will win spots on the election ending Nov. 7 unless one wins a clear majority of the votes in the primary election.
The frontrunner in the District Court Judge race after Tuesday’s count was Jill Landes, 56, a Clallam County senior deputy prosecuting attorney from Port Townsend, who took 3,112 votes, or 37.74 percent.
Suryan, 61, a public defense attorney in Clallam County, won the second most votes in Tuesday’s count with 2,270, or 27.53 percent.
Rebekah Ross, 49, an administrative law judge from Brinnon followed close behind with 2,195 votes, or 26.62 percent.
Hynson, an attorney in private practice in Port Townsend, said Wednesday he endorses Suryan.
“I want to endorse Suryan because, number one, first and foremost, I think he’s balanced and has the most experience.
“The other two candidates are so beholden to the system they could not get outside the system.” he said.
“People need someone with understanding and heart in that office, because the District Court is a cauldron of broken dreams and fear.”
Suryan, leading Ross by only 75 votes, said he welcomes Hynson’s endorsement.
“That’s pleasant news, if he has the confidence in me that I will act appropriately, how a judge should act,” Suryan said Wednesday.
“I don’t want to be a rubber stamp for law enforcement, nor do I want to be a rubber stamp for the defense.”
With Landes taking a commanding lead by 842 votes to the next closest candidate, the remaining ballots to be counted effectively pin Suryan against Ross to move onto the general election.
“Obviously I feel better about being ahead than if I were behind by 75 votes,” Suryan said. “But it will be interesting to see what happens.”
Ross said all she can to is hold out until the remaining ballots are counted.
“I don’t particularly have a reason to think the percentages are going to change too much, but I’m going to wait and see what happens,” Ross said.
Landes said that “whoever gets it, I’ll welcome the competition.”
She said she feels confident going into the general election and will continue to run her campaign on her record and experience.
“Having Mark Huth [the current Jefferson County District Court Judge] endorse me was a big factor,” Landes said of the reason she believes she received more votes than the other candidates.
“Quite frankly, he knows what that position takes.”
Prosecuting attorney
Another close race is for the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney.
It is between two-term incumbent Juelie Dalzell, 58, of Port Townsend and Peggy Ann Bierbaum, 49, a private practice attorney in Port Townsend who lives in Quilcene.
After Tuesday’s count, Dalzell was leading 3,255 votes, or 51.5 percent, to Bierbaum’s 3,063 votes, or 48.46 percent.
The race is decided with Tuesday’s primary “pick a party” election because the only two candidates are Democrats.
Both candidates say that with more than 1,800 ballots left to count today, anything can happen.
“I still think I have to wait to call a victory,” Dalzell said.
“It’s too close. But I’d much rather be on this side of the count than the other side of the count.
“I’ve turned it over to the universe. Whatever happens, happens.”
Bierbaum thinks that Barbara Bradford, chair of the Jefferson County Republican Party, asking Republicans to vote for her on Democratic ballots may have had an impact.
She hopes the ballots remaining will put her over the top.
“But I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.
She also said it’s possible that some of the 269 write-in votes for Prosecuting Attorney on Republican ballots, could be her name.
Democratic write-in candidates on Republican ballots would not count as votes, said Jefferson County Auditor Donna Eldridge.
“We’ll take a look at those tomorrow, just out of curiosity,” Bierbaum said Wednesday.
Commissioner, District 3
In the primary election between Republicans Ian McFall, 66, of Brinnon and Bob Pontius, 62, of Port Ludlow, McFall shot ahead after Tuesday’s count with 743 votes, or 57.42 percent, to Pontius’ 544 votes, or 42.04 percent.
The winner of this Republican primary will face John Austin, 64, the only Democratic candidate for District 3 commissioner.
McFall was visiting family in Great Britain Wednesday but sent a press release thanking his supporters for the victory in the primary.
“I would also like to thank my opponent Bob Pontius for making it a clean and gentlemanly race,” wrote McFall.
He continued: “The general election is only weeks away and my Democratic opponent has had a lot of time to prepare.
“But my team has already hit the ground running and we fully expect to win the next round.”
Pontius was unavailable for comment Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, he said that he thought it would be premature to say much before more votes were counted.
Fire District No. 5 levy
It’s still up in the air whether or not a permanent Jefferson County Fire District No. 5 levy will pass.
The levy would garner 50 cents for every $1,000 of assessed property valuation in the Discovery Bay and Gardiner area for emergency medical services.
To pass, the levy must win 60 percent of the votes, or a supermajority.
To be validated, 40 percent of the overall 570 voters in the district must vote either for or against the levy.
Tuesday’s count had 123 votes in favor of the levy to 91 opposed to it, or 57.48 percent to 42.52 percent.
That’s 37.5 percent of the overall votes in District No. 5.
“We’re still keeping hope, we still have some ballots that are going to be counted,” Jefferson County Fire District No. 5 Chief Ben Cooper said Wednesday.
“If it doesn’t pass, we’ll be back on the ballot in November asking for a five-year levy.”
He said he thought a reason it wasn’t passing as of Tuesday’s count was because voters didn’t like the idea of a permanent levy.
“It’s taking some of the control away from the public,” Cooper said.
“As a taxpayer I completely understand that.”
He said one reason to request a permanent levy was expense.
It costs the fire district between $500 and $1,000 dollars to put a levy measure on the ballot and campaign for it.
As a permanent levy, the cost to taxpayers would be stable: 50 cents for every $1,000 of assessed property valuation, he said.
For a $200,000 home, that would mean a fire district tax bill of $100 a year.
On Tuesday, the Jefferson County Auditor counted 9,607 votes of the overall 20,868 votes sent out to Jefferson County voters, or 46.04 percent.
So far, 113 ballots have been challenged for signatures that don’t match or are completely lacking signatures.
Voters of these challenged ballots have until Sept. 28 to correct their ballots if they are to be counted.
