Republican Eileen Quiring took the lead in the race for Clark County Council chair as the second batch of election results were released Wednesday evening.
The latest total puts Quiring ahead of Democrat Eric Holt by 254 votes out of 159,958 tabulated. More results are due Thursday evening.
In another too-close-to call race in the 17th Legislative District, state Rep. Vicki Kraft, R-Vancouver, slightly increased her lead over Democratic challenger Tanisha Harris. Kraft leads by 801 votes, or 1.61 percentage points. On election night, Kraft held a 575-vote margin.
In the 18th Legislative District, Republican Larry Hoff expanded his lead to more than 5 percentage points over Democrat Kathy Gillespie for a seat being vacated by Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas. The initial count had Hoff leading by about 2,000 votes. On Wednesday, that margin expanded to about 3,100 votes.
Most other county races appear to be settled.
Republican Clark County Clerk Scott Weber increased his lead over Democratic challenger Barbara Melton to nearly 10,000 votes. On election night, Weber led with 52.55 percent of the vote to Melton’s 47.37 percent. Weber now stands with 52.95 percent of the vote.
State Rep. Brandon Vick, R-Felida, maintained his lead with 55.52 percent of the vote over Democrat Chris Thobaben. State Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, also kept his comfortable lead over Democrat Damion Jiles.
In other updated counts, Clark County Councilor Julie Olson received 75.67 percent of the vote to fellow Republican Elisabeth Veneman’s 21.53 percent. Democratic Clark County Council candidate Temple Lentz increased her share of the vote to 60.33 percent over Republican County Councilor Jeanne Stewart’s 39.53 percent.
Clark County treasurer candidate Alishia Topper had 68.76 percent over Robert Hinds. Clark County Assessor Peter Van Nortwick also had 58.66 percent over challenger Darren Wertz.
Laurie Lebowsky appears to have defeated Sarah Fox for a Vancouver City Council seat.
Clark County has now tabulated 166,168 ballots with an estimated 30,000 left to count. As of Wednesday, Clark County had a turnout out of 58.72 percent.
Andy Matarrese of The Columbian contributed reporting.
