With Wednesday and Thursday night’s ballot counts, the results of a few of the races in Thurston County changed.
Notably, Lacey Fire District 3’s ballot measure is now passing and an Olympia City Council challenger has overtaken the incumbent. An Olympia School Board race remains tight — but the candidate who was winning in Tuesday night’s returns is now in second place.
Only about 1,000 ballots remain to be counted, said Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall.
The election results will be certified on Nov. 28.
Here’s how things had changed after the Wednesday and Thursday night counts.
Rollins passes Roe in Olympia City Council race
Challenger Renata Rollins moved past incumber Jeannine Roe in the race for Position 6 on the Olympia City Council.
Rollins had 53.4 percent of the vote as of Thursday night and Roe had 46.2 percent — the margin was 922 votes. A total of 12,910 votes have been counted in the race.
Tuesday night’s count had Roe leading with 50.9 percent — a 139-vote margin. At an election night party hosted by the Thurston County Young Democrats, Rollins was optimistic about her chances. She argued that progressives tend to turn in their ballots late.
Roe, 59, is a Realtor and broker with Greene Realty Group. Rollins, 34, is a self employed writer and test proctor.
Other council race results remained the same. First-time candidate Lisa Parshley maintained her lead in Position 5 against Allen Miller.
Incumbent Clark Gilman maintained his lead in Position 4 over challenger Max Brown, as did incumbent Jim Cooper in Position 7 over challenger Danny Marsh.
Clifthorne, Seidel ahead in Olympia School Board races
Contested races for the Olympia School Board remained close with Thursday night returns, but Scott Clifthorne had taken the lead in the race for the District No. 5 seat.
With 8,612 votes, Clifthorne led incumbent Mark Campeau, who had 7,493. On Tuesday night, Campeau held a slight advantage.
In the board’s other contested race, Hilary Seidel widened her lead over Ann Heitkemper for the District No. 4 seat. Seidel had 8,141 votes to Heitkemper’s 7,506 votes with Thursday’s count.
The winner in that race will replace Justin Montermini, who did not seek re-election.
Leslie Huff also was elected after opponent Katie Bridges dropped out of the race for District No. 3 seat.
Port of Olympia race: Will Fishburn vs. McGregor be a repeat of Zita vs. Farmer?
Port of Olympia District 2 commission candidate Bill Fishburn gained ground on incumbent commissioner Bill McGregor with Thursday night’s tally.
After Tuesday night’s count, McGregor led Fishburn with 52.3 percent of the vote to Fishburn’s 47.2 percent. But after Thursday’s count, McGregor had fallen to 50.9 percent to Fishburn’s 49.1 percent.
Are we going to see a repeat of E.J. Zita vs. Jerry Farmer?
In 2015, Zita and Farmer squared off for the District 3 seat on the port commission. Early returns that year showed Farmer with a lead, but Zita slowly overtook him as more ballots were counted, and she eventually won the seat.
As of Wednesday night, Zita maintained her lead over challenger Gigi McClure with a 56.6 percent to 42.8 percent margin.
Lacey Fire District 3’s Proposition 1 is passing
The updated ballot count Thursday night shows that Lacey Fire District 3’s Proposition 1 is now passing, according to Thurston County Auditor data.
After Tuesday night’s ballot count, Proposition 1 had enough support at 74.7 percent, but voter turnout was still too low to make the election valid. In order to pass, Proposition 1 needed at least 17,087 total votes, 10,253 “yes” votes and a super-majority of 60 percent or better.
Thursday night’s results pushed the number past the target: A total of 17,114 votes had been counted. Of those votes, 12,827, or about 75 percent, were in favor of the measure.
Proposition 1 asked Fire District 3 voters to approve a 20-year bond issue for fire station upgrades, new equipment and three fire trucks. The measure would raise nearly $20 million and be paid off with a slightly higher property tax levy.
The bonds would replace existing bonds scheduled to expire in late 2020. The net tax increase through 2020 is about 4 cents per month per $1,000 of assessed valuation, which translates to $10.40 a year on a $260,000 home and lot. The tax rate would decrease after 2020.
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