With just over half the predicted ballots counted, it’s too early to tell who won

If this year’s general election turnout mirrors that of 2021, no one will go to sleep tonight confident that they know the results of any of the ballot choices.  

The Thurston County Auditor’s office reported at 8 p.m. tonight that it had counted 41,138 votes, or just shy of 21% of registered voters. In the off-year general election in 2021, 38.21% of voters cast their ballots. That suggests that election workers will be counting approximately 35,000 or more additional votes in the coming days.  

Auditor Mary Hall told The JOLT tonight, “People are voting later. We got hit pretty hard today with ballots and, you know, quite often 50% of our ballots come in on Election Day and after, so [vote totals] could be higher” than in 2021. 

Of the 77 candidate positions on ballots throughout the county and cities, only 35 are opposed; 42 incumbents are running unopposed, mostly in races for school boards, fire districts and cemetery commissions. 

Here are the results reported tonight:  

Thurston County Proposition No. 1 – Sales and Use Tax for Law Enforcement Protection, Corresponding Prosecution and Public Defense Services, and Elections Security 

Name	Count	Percent
Approved	22,312	57.86%
Rejected	16,250	42.14%

 

Thurston County Commissioner, District No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
Wayne Fournier	19,078	48.77%
Vivian Eason	19,905	50.88%

 

Thurston County Commissioner, District No. 5 

Name	Count	Percent
Emily Clouse	23,095	58.78%
Terry S. Ballard	16,065	40.89%

 

Port of Olympia Port Commissioner, District No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Jasmine Vasavada	19,240	50.10%
Bill McGregor	19,018	49.52%

 

Port of Olympia Port Commissioner, District No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
Rose Chiu Gunderson	18,782	49.39%
Maggie Sanders	19,056	50.11%

 

Port of Olympia Port Commissioner, District No. 5 

Name	Count	Percent
Sarah Tonge	19,516	51.54%
Troy Kirby	18,190	48.04%

 

Town of Bucoda, Mayor 

Name	Count	Percent
Robert F. Gordon	44	100.00%
Unopposed

 

Town of Bucoda, Town Council, Pos. No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Callie Carpenter	37	97.37%
Unopposed

 

Town of Bucoda, Town Council, Pos. No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Steven Lyle	36	97.30%
Unopposed

 

Town of Bucoda, Town Council, Pos. No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
Michelle Layton	38	100.00%
Unopposed

 

Town of Bucoda, Town Council, Pos. No. 5 

Name	Count	Percent
Kiersten Presley	39	100.00%
Unopposed

 

City of Lacey, City Council, Pos. No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Malcolm Miller	5,163	97.65%
Unopposed

 

City of Lacey, City Council, Position No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Spencer Zeman	2,617	42.56%
Lenny Greenstein	3,501	56.94%

 

City of Lacey, City Council, Position No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Nicolas Dunning	3,927	64.16%
Ed Kunkel	2,153	35.17%

 

City of Olympia, Mayor 

Name	Count	Percent
Dontae Payne	5,425	67.02%
David Ross	2,626	32.44%

 

City of Olympia, City Council, Pos. No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Yen Huynh	6,013	96.13%
Unopposed

 

City of Olympia, City Council, Pos. No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Dani Madrone	6,037	96.28%
Unopposed

 

City of Rainier, City Council, Pos. No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Damion Green	114	43.18%
Ryan Roth	148	56.06%

 

City of Rainier, City Council, Pos. No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
Ron Kemp	208	97.20%
Unopposed

 

City of Tenino, Mayor 

Name	Count	Percent
David Watterson	131	50.00%
Linda Gotovac	131	50.00%

 

City of Tenino, City Council, Pos. No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Elaine Klamn	200	97.09%
Unopposed

 

City of Tenino, City Council, Pos. No. 5 

Name	Count	Percent
Jeff Eisel	196	98.00%
Unopposed

 

City of Tumwater, City Council, Pos. No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Leatta Dahlhoff	2,479	97.79%
Unopposed

 

City of Tumwater, City Council, Pos. No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Angela Jefferson	2,529	98.21%
Unopposed

 

City of Tumwater, City Council, Pos. No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Doris Atkinson	493	16.01%
Joan Cathey	2,556	83.01%

 

City of Tumwater, City Council, Pos. No. 7 

Name	Count	Percent
Andrea McGhee	1,563	48.30%
Kelly Von Holtz	1,660	51.30%

 

City of Yelm, City Council, Pos. No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Stephanie Kangiser	293	50.17%
Tracey Wood	288	49.32%

 

City of Yelm, City Council, Pos. No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Joseph Dale Richardson	294	50.78%
Jerry Toompas	280	48.36%

 

City of Yelm, City Council, Pos. No. 6 

Name	Count	Percent
Trevor Palmer	287	49.40%
Ashley Lea Brooks	290	49.91%

 

Centralia School District No. 401-L, School Board Director, Pos. No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Maritza Bravo	48	96.00%
Unopposed

 

Centralia School District No. 401-L, School Board Director, Pos. No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Andrea Ware	45	95.74%
Unopposed

 

Centralia School District No. 401-L, School Board Director, Pos. No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
Mandi McDougall	22	34.38%
Sarah Holmes	42	65.62%

 

Griffin School District No. 324, School Board Director, Pos. No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Matt Dorcy	624	44.41%
Tesa Frevert	776	55.23%

 

Griffin School District No. 324, School Board Director, Pos. No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Emma Rose	1,047	96.85%
Unopposed

 

Griffin School District No. 324, School Board Director, Pos. No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
David Kangiser	549	41.88%
Blair Baker	747	56.98%

 

North Thurston Public Schools, School Board Director, District No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Veronica Shriver	6,047	46.73%
Gretchen Maliska	6,832	52.79%

 

North Thurston Public Schools, School Board Director, District No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
Stephanie Scott	6,265	48.66%
Esperanza A. Badillo-Diiorio	6,520	50.64%

 

North Thurston Public Schools, School Board Director, District No. 5 

Name	Count	Percent
Michelle J. Gipson	6,585	50.67%
David G. Newkirk	6,356	48.91%

 

Olympia School District No. 111, School Board Director, District No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Maria R. Flores	7,044	64.93%
Talauna Reed	3,421	31.54%

 

Olympia School District No. 111, School Board Director, District No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Jess Tourtellotte-Palumbo	6,087	55.99%
Frank Durocher	4,748	43.68%

 

Olympia School District No. 111, School Board Director, District No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
Hilary Seidel	6,557	60.84%
Leslie Van Leishout	4,151	38.51%

 

Rainier School District No. 307, School Board Director, District No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Amanda Siemandel
Aaron Lang

 

Rainier School District No. 307, School Board Director, District No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Jerry F. Sprouffske
Jon Palmer

 

Rainier School District No. 307, School Board Director, District No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Dana Morgan Spivey
Brian Hackethal

 

Rochester School District No. 401, School Board Director, District No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Grant Rodeheaver	1,115	63.50%
Wava Garza	631	35.93%

 

Rochester School District No. 401, School Board Director, District No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Penelope Mena	736	41.77%
Susie Hawes	1,013	57.49%

 

Rochester School District No. 401, School Board Director, District No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
James Neil Turner	870	50.12%
Michael L. Morrow	854	49.19%

 

Tenino School District No. 402, School Board Director, District No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Ryan T. Hilton	253	15.56%
Jennifer Johnson	1,363	83.83%

 

Tenino School District No. 402, School Board Director, District No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Adam Barr	1,262	95.82%
Unopposed

 

Tenino School District No. 402, School Board Director, District No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
Jessica Reeves-Rush	1,348	97.68%
Unopposed

 

Tumwater School District No. 33, School Board Director, District No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Jeff (Cowboy) Curry	2,109	37.12%
Jill Tokarczyk Adams	3,545	62.40%

 

Tumwater School District No. 33, School Board Director, District No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Casey Taylor	4,221	94.39%
Unopposed

 

Tumwater School District No. 33, School Board Director, District No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Scott Killough	4,359	97.93%
Unopposed

 

Yelm Community Schools, School Board Director, District No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Eric Heid	1,124	41.19%
Casey Shaw	1,567	57.42%

 

Yelm Community Schools, School Board Director, District No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Allyn Verbal	1,089	39.22%
Denise Hendrickson	1,672	60.21%

 

Yelm Community Schools, School Board Director, District No. 5 

Name	Count	Percent
Bill Hauss	1,573	56.54%
Karen (Kay) Anderson	1,190	42.78%

 

Fire Protection District No. 3 (Lacey), Commissioner, Pos. No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Frank Kirkbride	9,738	98.60%
Unopposed

 

Fire Protection District No. 3 (Lacey), Commissioner, Pos. No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
Liberty Hetzler	9,558	98.28%
Unopposed

 

Fire Protection District No. 6 (Olympia), Commissioner, Pos. No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Brandon Faust	1,653	97.87%
Unopposed

 

Fire Protection District No. 8 (South Bay), Commissioner, Pos. No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Gloria Zvirzdys	1,795	97.71%
Unopposed

 

Fire Protection District No. 8 (South Bay), Commissioner, Pos. No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Jake Hunter	1,817	98.16%
Unopposed

 

Fire Protection District No. 9 (McLane Black Lake), Commissioner, Pos. No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Len Albert	1,903	98.86%
Unopposed

 

Fire Protection District No. 9 (McLane Black Lake), Commissioner, Pos. No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
Jason A. Foust	1,848	98.67%
Unopposed

 

Fire Protection District No. 9 (McLane Black Lake), Commissioner, Pos. No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Mark Thompson	1,906	98.76%
Unopposed

 

Fire Protection District 12, Commissioner, Pos. No. 4 

Name	Count	Percent
James Freed	843	96.67%
Unopposed

 

Fire Protection District No. 13 (Griffin), Commissioner, Pos. No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Arthur Dalessandro	1,010	98.92%
Unopposed

 

Fire Protection District No. 13 (Griffin), Commissioner, Pos. No. 3 

Name	Count	Percent
Dave Pearsall	1,014	98.54%
Unopposed

 

 

Fire Protection District No. 17 (Bald Hills), Commissioner, Pos. No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Harry W. Miller	345	97.18%
Unopposed

 
SE Thurston Fire Authority, Sub Region 1 Commissioner, Position No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
David Shepherd	2,158	97.53%
Unopposed

 
SE Thurston Fire Authority, Sub Region 2, Commissioner, Position No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Jeff DeHan	2,220	98.67%
Unopposed

 
SE Thurston Fire Authority, Sub Region 3, Commissioner, Position No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Bill DeVore	2,092	97.53%
Unopposed

 

West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Rochester, Commissioner, Position No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Jeff Merryman	1,125	84.27%
Unopposed

 

West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Rochester, Commissioner, Position No. 2 

Name	Count	Percent
Michael Reed	1,011	86.63%
Unopposed

 

Tanglewilde Parks & Recreation District No. 1, Parks & Recreation Commissioner, Position No. 1 

Name	Count	Percent
Dayv Lowry	193	96.50%
Unopposed

 

Tanglewilde Parks & Recreation District No. 1, Parks & Recreation Commissioner, Position No. 5 

Name	Count	Percent
Alexis Wallace	169	93.37%
Unopposed

 

Cemetery District No. 1 (Grand Mound) 

Name	Count	Percent
Marc S. Spiegelberg	1,533	98.59%
Unopposed

 

Cemetery District No. 2 (Yelm) 

Name	Count	Percent
Kristen Colt	1,822	94.75%
Unopposed