The final results of the August primary election are in, and with just 10 votes separating them, Keith Olson and Al Smith are headed to a machine recount to decide which of them will face Vickie Raines for the County Commission District 3 seat in November.
Cosmopolis Mayor Raines officially won the three-way primary with 1,857 votes (33.1 percent) after final results were certified on Tuesday. Democrat Smith, from the Wishkah Valley, trails Olson, a Quinault Republican, by 10 votes, 1,464 to 1,454 for second place. Smith led Olson in the initial tally on election night, but has trailed him by a small margin in every updated count since.
The Election Canvassing Board “approved a machine recount, which is mandatory when the results are within this range,” Election Supervisor Katy Moore said Tuesday. “We will start re-scanning the ballots at 9 a.m. Friday.”
After the recount is complete, the top two vote-getters will proceed to the general election.
“With regards to who my opponent may be: ‘I have no preference,’ ” Raines said after the results were certified, making a play on her “no party preference” declaration for the ballot.
Ballots to be re-scanned are those from District 3, the commission’s westernmost district. The entire county will vote in the race in November.
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