Thurston’s primary turnout tops 30% and results shift with just 400 votes left to count
About 31.4% of Thurston County voters cast their ballots in the 2021 primary, according to in-progress data from the county Auditor’s Office.
“That’s pretty amazing actually,” Hall said. “Odd-year elections don’t get as much attention as even-year elections simply because people aren’t that familiar with what city council members do or what port commissioners do.”
Odd-year primary election results have increased over the last several years from 22.4% in 2015 to 26.4% in 2019, Hall said. The increase in turnout this year may be due to the number of important races on the primary ballot, she said.
“There were some hotly contested primaries in the city of Olympia, as well as the Port race,” Hall said. “Then of course Medic One which was a countywide measure that was very important to some people. … I think people vote on things that involve taxes quite often.”
Hall said ballot processing went smoothly and she’s been happy to have more observers at the processing center.
“Typically, we don’t get them, but we put a full-page ad in our voter’s pamphlet, and I really reached out to both chairs of the political parties,” Hall said. “I think having observers is important … because they become our best ambassadors.”
As of Friday, only about 400 special handle ballots remain to be counted, Hall said, and so far no race appears to be so close that it will require a recount.
The candidates’ ranks in two races for Olympia City Council have changed since initial returns were reported Tuesday night. The top two vote-getters in the primary will move onto the November ballot.
In the Olympia City Council race for Position 5, Lisa Parsley now leads with 4,814 votes, but Talauna Reed, with 4,367 votes, is now ahead of Wendy Carlson’s 4,202 votes. Early returns on Tuesday showed Carlson ahead of Reed.
In Position 7, incumbent Jim Cooper has taken the lead with 5,655 votes. Spence Weigand, who had a narrow lead over Cooper in early returns, now has 5,481 votes. Meanwhile, Tyrone Dion Brown just had 2,440 as of Friday.
Meanwhile, Port of Olympia District 3 candidates Amy Evans and Joel Hansen continued to lead in the race to advance to the general election.
The status of two Olympia School Board races remained unchanged since initial returns Tuesday night. Candidates Darcy Huffman and Mark Boyer still appear poised to move on to the November general election in the District 3 race and incumbent Scott Clifthorne still holds a commanding lead in the District 5 race.
The levy lid lift to support Medic One, Thurston County’s tiered, emergency medical service system, still is passing by a wide margin with 63.8% approval as of Friday.
Notable among the measures affecting fire districts, Hall said the Fire Protection District 12 bond proposition to construct a new fire station will likely fail to validate.
Though the bond proposition is passing, Hall said it needs at least 1,704 votes to validate. As of Friday, only 1,395 votes were cast, according to county data.
“It’s a shame because they’ve got an approval rate of 63.2% but it’s very difficult to validate in the year that follows record turnout in a presidential election,” Hall said. “Because the validation figures are based on the last general election.”
The county will certify all results by Aug. 17.
