While Kristina Mayer remained the top vote-getter in the most recent recount of the primary election for the open Director District 3 seat on the Chimacum School Board, fellow candidates Gary Frogner and Steve Martin saw their fortunes reversed, even as less than a handful of votes separated them.
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While Kristina Mayer remained the top vote-getter in the most recent recount of the primary election for the open Director District 3 seat on the Chimacum School Board, fellow candidates Gary Frogner and Steve Martin saw their fortunes reversed, even as less than a handful of votes separated them.
A ballot recount this week, Aug. 28 and 29, will decide their outcome.
As of 2:06 p.m. on Aug. 20, of the 2,842 votes counted, 1,361 were cast for Mayer, giving her 52.21% of the vote — more than half the votes cast for Director District 3, and nearly three times the number of votes cast for her nearest opponents — enough to guarantee her spot on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.
While Mayer retained roughly the same margin of slightly less than 53% throughout all three reported ballot counts, the election night totals for Frogner and Martin told a significantly different tale from their latest counts.
When the polls closed Aug. 6, Frogner led Martin, 422 votes to 415, but by the time Jefferson County Auditor’s Office reported the update count Aug. 9, the gap between them had narrowed, with Frogner leading Martin by only one vote, 501-500.
Aug. 20 saw Martin overtake Frogner, 504-502, with Martin receiving 19.33% of the vote to Frogner’s 19.26%.
As for fourth candidate Jeremiah “Jeremy” Perrott, the updated count for Aug. 20 showed him receiving 194 votes, or 7.44% of the vote, while write-ins received 46 votes, or 1.76% of the vote.
Over-votes accounted for 27 ballots, while under-votes counted for 208.
And East Jefferson Fire Rescue’s Aug. 6 ballot measure, to expand the number of commissioners from the existing three board members to a total of five fire commissioners, has retained a super-majority of primary election voters as of Aug. 20, with 4,470 ballots in favor, or 69.29% of the vote, and 1,984 ballots against, or 30.74% of the vote, with zero over-votes and 25 under-votes.
According to County Election Coordinator Quinn Grewell, the two-vote difference between candidates running for the Chimacum School District’s Director District 3 seat falls within the category of a mandatory hand recount.
Mandatory recounts occur when the votes for offices fall within the statutory range.
Mandatory recounts by machine occur when the difference between the two candidates is less than 2,000 votes difference, and less than half of 1% of the total votes cast.
Mandatory recounts by hand occur when the difference between the two candidates is less than 150 votes, and less than one-quarter of 1% of the total votes cast.
The County Canvassing Board’s certification meeting on Aug. 20 was followed by four days of administrative preparations for the recount, from Aug. 21 through Aug. 23, plus Aug. 26, before ballot-sorting began Aug. 27.
Two days have been set aside for the tabulation and recount, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 28 and 29, in time for the results of the recount to be certified by 12:30 p.m. Aug. 30.
