City Council races across the county are shaping up after the first round of primary election ballots were counted on Tuesday evening.
According to the Grays Harbor County Auditor’s website, voter turnout came in at a little over 25%, with just over 5,000 ballots counted and another estimated 1,000 to go out of 19,925 ballots sent. In each race, the top two candidates move on to the general election in November. The next primary ballot count will be Friday.
Aberdeen
Ward 1 Position 1: Incumbent Melvin Taylor, appointed to fill the vacancy by Dave Haviland’s departure earlier this year, received more than half the total votes so far, and will face Kimberly Strom, assistant manager at Cannabis 21 and a Hoquiam High School 1991 graduate, in the general election. Strom collected more than 30% of the vote. A third candidate, Michael Trader, got a little more than 16% of the vote.
Ward 4 Position 7: Antara Croft and Marissa Aube will face each other in the November general election. Croft, a physical therapist, garnered just under 38% of the primary votes; Aube, a founding member of the Aberdeen Sunday Market, got just under 32%. Two other candidates, Rebecca Sanchez and Tara Mareth, got 15% and 13.5% of the vote respectively.
Ward 5 Position 10: Incumbent Alan Richrod will face CityCuts owner Debi Ann Pieraccini in November — the latter reeled in nearly 59% of the vote to Richrod’s nearly 30%. Chelsey Leavenworth’s 16 votes amounted to about 10% of the total votes counted.
Hoquiam
Ward 4 Position 7: A very tight race. Incumbent Greg Grun leads with just under 36% of the primary vote. Challenger Jamie Brand was second with 33% of the vote, Joseph R. Marchie third with just over 30% of the vote. While Brand and Grun appear headed for the general election, Friday’s count will determine the top two in this race.
Ocean Shores
Position 5: The crowded five-candidate field appears to be down to two after Tuesday’s count. Incumbent Lisa Scott outpaced the second highest vote-getter Patrick Daugherty 906-464, 44% to a little more than 25%. Both are well ahead of the other three candidates, Edgar W. Schroll, Lorraine Hardin and Robert M. Doering Jr.
Position 7: Five Star Dealerships’ Rich Hartman got more than 46% of the primary vote. Two other candidates are close together — software developer Patric Hayes with 590 votes (28.59%) and David Linn with 503 votes (24.37%), but with few ballots left to count it appears Hartman and Hayes will face each other in November.
Westport
Position 1: Incumbent Melissa Huerta got nearly 60% of the vote and appears poised to face Vietnam vet Dennis Hall, who got just under 25% of the vote. Brylie Jarnes was third with just under 16% of the vote.
Position 2: Troy Meyers, a FEMA certified incident management professional, took more than 55% of the primary vote. He’ll face Brennan Jarnes, a college student who got just under 25% of the vote, in November. Candidate Tom Fleckenstein came in with just over 18% of the primary vote.
Mayoral races
There were two mayoral races on the primary ballot, McCleary and Oakville. In McCleary, challenger Chris Miller took nearly 52% of the vote and will face incumbent Brenda Orffer in November. Orffer got just over 39% of the primary vote, another challenger, Jeffrey D. Prowse, just over 8%.
Bill Breedlove was the top vote-getter in Oakville with more than 47%. Who he will face in November is still up in the air — incumbent Mayor Angelo Cilluffo and challenger Anthony Smith are in a dead heat to be the second candidate, each with 24 votes.
Levies
The Elma levy to partially fund police services for 2022 is easily passing as of Wednesday with more than 70% of the vote. The multi-county South Beach Regional Fire Authority excess levy for maintenance and operations is also passing at nearly 63% of the total votes in Grays Harbor and Pacific counties.
