Low Turnout, Some Surprises in Election Night Count

By Stan Matthews
County Communications Program Manager

Deputy Rob Nou has a commanding lead in the hotly-contested race for San Juan County Sheriff, County Auditor Milene Henley reported Tuesday night.  Nou is one of five candidates vying to replace retiring Sheriff Bill Cumming.  Nou leads with 29.3% of the vote, followed by Deputy Brent Johnson with 20.89%, Probation Officer Brad Fincher with 18.73%, Deputy Jeff Asher with 18.52%, and Deputy Felix Menjivar with 12.11%.  The top two vote-getters will go on to the general election ballot in November.

“Our voter turnout so far is only 48%,” cautions Henley.  “We could easily receive another 12%, or almost 1400 ballots, prior to certifying this election.  Nou will be on the November ballot, but the votes for the next three are close enough that things could change.  I’m not ready to call this race yet.”

On Orcas, a school bond issue, re-worked and re-packaged since its failure in the February election earlier this year, failed once again to get voter approval.  54.5% of Orcas voters voted against, versus 45.5% for.

Ballots picked up at ballot boxes on Lopez, Orcas and San Juan at 8:00 Tuesday night will be processed on Wednesday, along with ballots received in the mail on Wednesday.  Any ballot postmarked by Tuesday, August 17, and received by 15 days following the election, will be counted.

In other election news, incumbent Councilmember Bob Myhr will advance to the general election in November along with opponent Jamie Stevens, both of Lopez.  Myhr has received 38.17% of the vote so far, and Stephens 35.44%.  Candidate Jerry Gonce, with 26.18% of the vote, will not advance to the general election.

Incumbent Prosecutor Randy Gaylord, running opposed, ran into a surprising amount of opposition.  There were 307 write-in votes in that race, almost 9% of the votes cast.  If any one of the write-ins receives 1% of the votes cast in that race, that write-in candidate will advance to the general election.

In State elections, incumbent Jeff Morris has a strong lead locally in the race for State Representative Position #2, and Kristin Lytton has a significant lead for Position 1, formerly held by Dave Quall.  In Federal elections, incumbents Patty Murray and Rick Larsen both received more than 50% in their respective races for U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative.

See all local and state-wide election results online at:  https://wei.secstate.wa.gov/sanjuan/currentelection/currentelectionresults/Pages/ElectionResults.aspx.