— By Minor Lile, Orcas Issues reporter —
Challenger Cindy Wolf will face off with incumbent Rick Hughes for the District 2 County Council seat in the November general election. With approximately 87% of the primary vote counted, Wolf has received 2,768 votes. Hughes is currently in second place with 2,634 votes and Michael Durland is in third with 782 votes.
With approximately 1,000 ballots remaining to be counted, it appears that general election candidates for the District 1 seat will be Christine Minney (2,356 votes) and Ryan Palmateer (1,937 votes). Other candidates in the District 1 primary are Sharon Kivisto (1,043 votes), Steve Wehrly (371 votes), and Daniel Miller (351 votes). District 1 incumbent Bill Watson is not running for reelection.
Support for the Orcas Island School District levy is at 71.74% after today’s tabulations.
As of 5:04 PM today, 6,921 ballots have been tabulated, with an estimated 1,000 ballots remaining to be counted. Total voter turnout for the primary is estimated at just over 50%. The next ballot count will be released on Monday, August 10.
Results for all of the August 4 primary races are available HERE.
Interesting that the top vote getters in the two districts are both women. Is this a first for the County? What is it telling us?
Maybe the voters don’t like the way men have been running the County recently.
Quite frankly, I think that Cindy Wolf’s win is due to the fact that she is just a better candidate … whip smart, a very good listener, and full of practical solutions for the future of our county.
I voted for Rick twice before, but voted for Cindy this time around. I respect Rick’s experience and talents, but his emphasis on moving us to phase III, and on the importance of vacation rentals to our current and future economy no longer resonate with me. Let’s see what Cindy can do for us, over the coming and complex years.