PORT ANGELES – Incumbents had a good night in last night’s local elections.
In results released after the first vote count, Mark Ozias has easily won re-election as Clallam County Commissioner. Incumbent Port of Port Angeles Commissioner Connie Beauvais is also leading Lee Whetham by some two thousand votes.
Voters appear satisfied with the direction of the current city council in Port Angeles. All three incumbents are winning in their races. Amy Miller leads Jim Haguewood by more than 400 votes. Navara Carr is ahead of Mark Karjalainen by more than six hundred votes, and Brendan Meyer leads Kalli Mae Jones in the closest race by about two hundred votes.
In Sequim, former mayor William Armacost has been defeated by city council member Kathy Downer, who gave up a re-election bid for her current seat and filed to run against Armacost. Downer garnered more than 13 hundred more votes than Armacost. Dan Butler gained more than 700 more votes than Jim Black in their race. Harmoney Rutter outpolled Patrick Day by nearly a thousand votes in the other contested Sequim City Council Race.
Stan Williams is fending off a write-in campaign by Chris Noble in the only contested race for Port Angeles School Board. Williams leads by more than 16 hundred votes.
For Sequim School Board Larry Jeffryes and Maren Halvorsen cruised to re-election. Incumbent Michael Rocha is leading by a few hundred votes over Sandra Kellso. Kellso had dropped out of the race, but her name remained on the ballot.
About 20 thousand ballots were counted and those results were released last night. Elections officials say they have about 4000 more ballots to count today.