Clark County voters favor a proposed county charter by a double-digit percentage, according to first general election returns released Tuesday evening. They elected Republican Chuck Atkins as sheriff, and were favoring Democrat Craig Pridemore for county commissioner.
Election results in state and Clark County races can be found at www.columbian.com/election.
Atkins led nonpartisan Shane Gardner 56 percent to 44 percent. Pridemore’s margin was smaller, 51.3 percent to 48.5 percent for Republican Jeanne Stewart.
In legislative races, Republican challenger Lynda Wilson was beating incumbent Monica Stonier for a 17th District House seat, 51 percent to 48 percent. Other statehouse incumbents cruised to re-election.
In county races, the familiar names all appeared to be re-elected: Prosecutor Tony Golik and Treasurer Doug Lasher, Democrats; and Assessor Peter Van Nortwick and Clerk Scott Weber, Republicans. Republican Auditor Greg Kimsey was uncontested for re-election.
In the 3rd Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, appeared to be comfortably on her way to a third term, defeating Democrat Bob Dingethal.
For the second year in a row, voters indicated their wish for a toll-free bridge across the Columbia River in east Clark County. GOP County Commissioners David Madore and Tom Mielke posed the question, though the county lacks the authority to build such a bridge, and no state or federal agency has championed it.
The only local incumbent apparently going down in defeat is Clark Public Utilities Commissioner Byron Hanke, who was challenged by the woman he succeeded on the board, Jane Van Dyke. She had a five percentage point lead.
Local voters also lent their support to both statewide initiatives on gun rights, though they are opposites. They opposed Initiative 1351, which would require smaller class sizes for public schools.
Approximately 45,000 more ballots will be tabulated in coming days, according to an elections office estimate. There were 249,277 eligible voters in Clark County for this election, and as of Tuesday the county Elections Office reported having 86,161 ballots on hand, for a turnout of 34.56 percent. Of those, 82,153 were counted in the first round.
Many thousands more ballots were submitted later Tuesday or will be received in the mail Wednesday and Thursday. The county’s elections supervisor, Cathie Garber, has said she hopes turnout will reach 50 percent.
The next tabulation should be released late Wednesday afternoon.
