— by Minor Lile, Orcas Issues reporter —
The most recent vote counts for the August 4 primary election were released just before 5:00 pm on Tuesday, August 11. These latest returns include an additional 2,279 ballots that have been tabulated since the previous vote tally was released on August 6. At that time, the County elections office estimated that there were about 1,000 ballots remaining to be counted.
With an estimated 100 ballots now remaining, and 9,200 ballots counted, total voter turnout for the primary is just above 67%. The number of registered voters in San Juan County at the time of the August 4 primary was 13,726. Voter participation is significantly higher than for the 2016 primary election, for which turnout was just over 52%.
In the race for the District 2 seat, Cindy Wolf, with 3,643 votes, and Rick Hughes, with 3,442 votes, will move on to the November 3 election. Michael Durland, the third candidate for the seat, has received 1,081 votes. No votes have yet been recorded for late write-in candidate Mindy Kayl.
The two finalists for the open District 1 seat are Christine Minney (3,056 votes) and Ryan Palmateer (2,576 votes). Sharon Kivisto (1,411 votes), Steve Wherly (495 votes), and Daniel Miller (484 votes) were also candidates for the seat.
Both the Lopez (69.64% yes) and Orcas (71.46%) school district levy measures received strong support.
Results for all of the August 4 primary races and ballot measures are available HERE.
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