PORT ANGELES — Mark Nichols widened his lead in the Clallam County prosecuting attorney race while Bill Peach maintained his gain in the county commission race after a third count of ballots last week.
The Auditor’s Office counted the 3,539 ballots that arrived Wednesday on Friday.
The remainder — 3,264 ballots — will be counted Monday, with results expected to be reported by 4:30 p.m., said Shoona Riggs, county elections supervisor and auditor-elect.
“I would not expect the results to change much with the remaining ballots,” Auditor Patty Rosand said.
Nichols, 42, widened his four-point lead to a five-point lead in his race for prosecuting attorney against fellow Republican Payne, 57, who was appointed to the post in January.
Nichols had 11,058 votes to Payne’s 10,025 votes — a gap of 1,033 votes, 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent — after Wednesday’s ballots were counted Friday.
“This is great news,” said Nichols, the county’s land-use hearing examiner and former chief deputy prosecuting attorney.
“I’m encouraged to hear that the trend is continuing in my favor.”
Nichols, who was hosting a party for his supporters Friday night, said he was “honored and humbled to have received the support of voters from Clallam County.
“I’m grateful for the support, and I will eagerly await Monday’s returns,” he added.
Payne, who was working as an assistant state attorney general before he was appointed the top county prosecutor, said he would “see how it shakes out,” Payne said.
“I still have people emailing me, saying don’t give up,” he added.
Peach, 59, a Forks Republican, maintained a lead of 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent over Bruch, 54, a Port Angeles Democrat, in the contest to replace retiring county Commissioner Mike Doherty in District 3, which extends from west Port Angeles to the West End.
Peach had 12,289 votes to Bruch’s 11,678 votes — a 611-vote lead — after Wednesday’s ballots were tabulated Friday.
Peach is a retired forester and former executive director of the Quileute tribe.
Bruch is a senior planner for the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and a Port Angeles City Council member.
“I’m just going to wait until Monday,” Bruch said Saturday.
“It’s only fair to have everybody’s vote counted before I take any action.”
Peach could not be reached for comment Friday or Saturday.
Peach, who has maintained a lead in ballot counts since Tuesday, said Thursday he doubted the outcome would change in subsequent counts.
With all ballots now on hand, both counted and uncounted, voter turnout is at 61.8 percent.
Including the counted ballots that have not been tabulated, voters countywide have returned 28,994 of 46,915 ballots mailed.
“We are done with the bulk returns,” Riggs said.
“Now we will only be receiving the stragglers through the mail, like out-of-state ballots and military or overseas, which take longer to get returned.”
A Clallam County Fire District No. 2 levy was passing with 2,145 yes votes to 1,341 no votes, a solid 61.5 percent approval.
Here are the results as of Friday for other Clallam County races:
■ County auditor: Riggs, 12,124, or 59.1 percent; Kim Yacklin, 8,378, or 40.9 percent.
■ Community development director: Mary Ellen Winborn, 13,418, or 61.8 percent; Sheila Roark Miller, 8,297, or 38.2 percent.
■ District Court 1 judge: Rick Porter, 12,375, or 58.3 percent; Cathy Marshall, 8,837, or 41.7 percent.
Here are the top five Charter Review Commission candidates for each district, which also remained unchanged:
■ District 1 — Sue W. Forde, Ken Hays, Ronald Bell, Nola E. Judd and Ted Miller.
■ District 2 — Glenn Wiggins, Norma E. Turner, Maggie Roth, Steven D. Burke and Selinda Barkhuis.
■ District 3 — Howard “Mike” Doherty, Barbara Christensen, Connie Beauvais, Cheryl Williams and Rod Fleck.
The county canvassing board will certify the results of the general election Nov. 25.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach contributed to this report.
