Newkirk gains on Gipson in North Thurston Public Schools board race
The North Thurston Public Schools board races remained close to extremely close after the results of a second ballot count were released Wednesday afternoon by the Thurston County Auditor’s Office.
No race is closer than the one between incumbent Dave Newkirk and newcomer Michelle Gipson for the District 5 seat on the board.
On Tuesday, Gipson was leading with 50.67% of the vote to Newkirk’s 48.91%. But on Wednesday, Newkirk edged closer. Gipson is still leading, but now it stands at 50.49% for her and 49.1% for him.
The two candidates are separated by 226 votes after Wednesday’s count.
Elsewhere, incumbent Gretchen Maliska extended her lead over Veronica Shriver, leading 52.86% to Shriver’s 46.67%. They are vying for the District 1 seat.
And in perhaps the most interesting race on the school board, Esperanza A. Badillo-Diiorio extended her lead over Stephanie Scott, for the District 4 seat. The seat is currently held by Graeme Sackrison who chose not to run for re-election.
Badillo-Diiorio is now leading by 51.89% to Scott’s 48.66%, although both candidates are happy no matter who wins in this race. That’s because they both had similar campaign platforms, prompting Scott to throw her support to Esperanza. However, Scott’s name still appeared on the ballot.
Scott explained the situation on Wednesday.
“I was not allowed to withdraw my name from the ballot because the deadline to do that is the week after candidate filing,” she said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t learn that Esperanza and I shared a platform until after the deadline had passed.”
The withdrawal deadline was 4:30 p.m. May 22, according to Auditor’s Office data.
The general election will be certified Nov. 28.
This story was originally published November 8, 2023 at 6:58 PM.
