2023 General Election: FINAL
*UPDATED*
The November General Election has been certified, and although 100 votes were added to the final total, no changes were made in close races.
In total, the 100 additional votes were added throughout the county, with the majority coming from unincorporated areas and not within city limits.
Doug Orr retained his lead for Aberdeen Mayor, with the gap tightening only slightly. The election was certified with Orr leading by only 4 votes over Debi Ann Pieraccini to decide who will lead the city starting in 2024. The final vote percentage saw a 0.15% difference between the candidates.
In another close race for Aberdeen, Scott Prato held onto his lead over Norman Klein for a seat on the Aberdeen City Council. Prato had a 9 vote lead as of Election Night, and ended with 10 votes separating.
Both Orr and Prato had the lead throughout the vote counts.
For Ocean Shores, approximately 30 votes were added to the total tally, but Susan Conniry could not regain her lead. At the final count, Lisa Griebel was able to increase her lead slightly over Conniry for the City Council seat. Griebel trailed by 16 votes on Election Night, and showed a 16 vote lead as of Tuesday.
Richard Wills retained a lead over PJ Faria at final count. Faria had a 31 vote advantage on Election Night, but trailed for the remainder of vote counts. Wills shows a single vote advantage over Faria.
In Cosmopolis, Mark Collet retained his lead over Sue Darcy throughout the vote count, but the final result was a 2 vote difference. Only 3 votes were added in the final count from Cosmopolis.
For Elma City Council, Jacob Borden held onto his lead over Ron Woodman, with 9 votes separating the candidates at certification.
In an unusual race, Elizabeth Logan Brockman was able to win her unopposed race for Oakville School Board, although for a period she trailed to WRITE-IN after a confirmed write-in campaign was filed. The race was certified with Brockman holding 194 total votes and WRITE-IN showing 190.
The Washington Secretary of State notes that a mandatory machine recount is triggered if the difference between the candidates is less than one half of one percent and also less than 2,000 votes.
A manual recount will be required if the difference between the candidates is less than 150 votes and one quarter of one percent.
In total, 15,817 were counted in the election. That represented a 32.39% turnout countywide, although many races outside city limits were unopposed. Turnout within cities was notably higher.