French leads Clallam commissioner race; Democrats ahead in both 24th District House contests

Mike French held a 3,663-vote lead in the Clallam County commissioner race Tuesday night, while Democrats Adam Bernbaum and Kaylee Kuehn led both 24th Legislative District House contests in the first unofficial returns.

Clallam’s first release, issued at 8:10 p.m., included 17,999 ballots, with thousands more still to be counted.

French received 10,648 votes, or 60.3%, to Jake Seegers’ 6,985 votes, or 39.6%, for the District 3 commissioner seat.

The tightest of the five contested local candidate races was for PUD commissioner. Randy Brackett led Rick Paschall for the District 2 seat, with 6,923 votes to 6,045 — an 878-vote difference. Brackett had 53.3% of the reported vote to Paschall’s 46.5%.

Shoona Riggs led Virginia Shogren for county auditor, 11,362 votes to 5,193, with 68.5% support. Lee Hancock held the widest lead among the five contested local candidate races, receiving 13,667 votes, or 84.0%, to Antonio Price’s 2,572.

Alex Schodowski led Patrick David Murphy for District Court 1 judge, 9,880 votes to 5,733, with 63.2% support.

All three proposed Clallam County charter amendments drew majority support.

Amendment 1, requiring commissioner town hall meetings outside normal business hours, had 11,600 votes in favor and 5,793 against, or 66.7% approval.

Amendment 2, establishing an ethics review board to review complaints involving elected county officials, had 10,006 votes in favor and 7,315 against, or 57.8% approval.

Amendment 3, requiring the full text of proposed charter amendments in the local voters’ pamphlet, had 10,333 votes in favor and 6,959 against, or 59.8% approval.

Fire District 2’s proposed emergency medical services levy was more than four percentage points short of the 60% approval needed for passage. It drew 1,118 votes in favor and 889 against, or 55.7% support. The district’s election filing also sets a turnout requirement for the levy to pass.

The proposal would authorize a levy of up to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value for 10 years, with collections beginning in 2027. At the maximum rate, that would mean $250 a year on a property assessed at $500,000.

In the districtwide House results, Bernbaum, a Democrat, received 31,035 votes, or 65.4%, to Republican Eric W. Pratt’s 16,374 for Position 1.

Kuehn, also a Democrat, led Marcia Kelbon, who states no party preference, 27,766 votes to 18,651 for Position 2. Kuehn had 59.7% support. The district spans Clallam, Jefferson and part of Grays Harbor County.

Democrat Emily Randall led Republican Teresa Fox in the 6th Congressional District, 153,397 votes to 83,371, with 64.7% of the districtwide vote.

The closest of Washington’s five Supreme Court contests was for Position 4. Sean O’Donnell led Ian Birk statewide, 926,884 votes to 886,636, a margin of 40,248. O’Donnell had 50.9% support. Clallam voters favored Birk, who led locally with 9,234 votes to O’Donnell’s 7,462.

Colleen Melody led Scott Edwards for Position 1, 1,108,412 votes to 734,783, with 60.0% support. Jaime Michelle Hawk led David Stevens for Position 3, 1,062,783 to 772,045, with 57.7%.

Theo Angelis led Dave Larson for Position 5, 1,015,685 votes to 811,503, with 55.4%. Debra L. Stephens led Todd A. Bloom for Position 7, 1,168,374 to 658,899, with 63.8%.

Across Washington, county estimates posted to VoteWA at 9:53 p.m. totaled roughly 551,000 ballots still to count. That tally covered 33 counties; six others, including Jefferson and Grays Harbor, had yet to report an estimate.

The largest listed estimates were King County’s 94,000, Pierce’s 80,000 and Clark’s 68,000. Birk led the votes already counted in King; O’Donnell led in Pierce and Clark.

In Clallam, thousands of ballots remain to be counted, with the final number still unclear.

The first count included ballots from 37.8% of registered voters in eastern Commissioner District 1, compared with 27.2% in District 2 and 23.1% in District 3, which includes the West End and part of Port Angeles.

The amount of counting left will help determine how difficult those early leads are to overcome. If Clallam matches its 2022 turnout rate of 71.24%, this year’s 60,299 registered voters would cast roughly 43,000 ballots — about 25,000 more than were included Tuesday night.

In an Olympic Herald scenario using that turnout and the first count’s distribution of votes among races, Paschall would need just over 52.4% of the remaining votes cast for him and Brackett to take the lead. Seegers would need about 57.5% of the remaining vote in his contest with French.

The interactive below shows how the five contested local races could change as counting continues. Adjust the number of remaining ballots and the trailing candidate’s share to explore the path to a comeback.

Clallam’s next results update is scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4. All results remain unofficial until certification, scheduled for Nov. 24.