Mail-in ballots have changed Election Day into Election Week for close races across the state, including Clallam County.
Officials last counted ballots on Thursday, then took Friday as a holiday in observance of Veterans Day.
The next vote count of 7,000 Clallam County ballots received last Monday and Tuesday (Election Day) will occur this Tuesday.
Thursday’s count changed one race — Port Angeles School Board challenger Patti Happe took a 51-vote lead over incumbent Lynn Geren after 2,958 more ballots were added to the initial general election tally released Tuesday.
Proposition 1, the countywide buyer’s excise tax, continued going down to defeat by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin.
A count of about 5,500 more Clallam ballots received in the mail last Wednesday and afterward will occur Wednesday through Friday.
The Clallam voter turnout, based on about 29,000 votes received, was about 66 percent.
The second Jefferson County general election vote count Thursday of about 2,200 more ballots did not substantially change Tuesday’s results in contests for Port Townsend City Council, Port of Port Townsend commissioner and Brinnon School Board.
As of Thursday, the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office had tabulated 13,963 mail ballots of 21,298 ballots mailed out, a 65.6 percent voter return.
Most of the mail-in ballots have been counted in Jefferson County, and Jefferson’s next vote count is 1 p.m. Nov. 22.
