Props passing in prelim

Jana Mathia, Gazette Reporter | Nov 09, 20170

Whitman County elections had counted 22.7 percent of ballots as of the closing bell Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Of the 22,229 that were mailed out, 5,046 had been counted with an estimated 1,000 remaining.

All propositions in the county were passing as of the first count of county ballots Tuesday night. The town of Farmington, which has struggled to pass levies in the pass, was 62 percent and St. John’s proposition #1 was at 61 percent. The big Pullman bond for $10.5 million was hanging on by two-tenths of a percent over the needed 60 percent to pass. Other levies were sitting just above the bubble including LaCrosse School District and St. John proposition one.

The two contested mayoral races were not looking good for incumbents. In Garfield, Jarrod Pfaff had 110 votes for 55 percent over Ray McCown’s 71 votes for 39 percent. In Rosalia, Lee Root had a 60 percent lead over Nan Konishi with 103 to 68 votes.

Garfield’s contested council races had Cande Hasenoehrl leading 105 votes over David Jones’ 74 and Tom Tevlin with 111 to Kevin Pickron’s 68.

Eric Eilertson had a strong lead for Rosalia council position #5 with 75 percent of the vote to top Jacob Dickinson’s 25 percent.

Several races were still close, including a tie for position #4 between Crystal Morgan and Bruce Kenoyer in Albion.

One vote separated in LaCrosse between Melody Wise, 38, and Donna Wigen, 39, for the council position #5.

Tekoa also had two close races with Jason Fletcher leading Alyssa Heagy with 51 percent over 47 percent and Wendy Sienknecht’s 51 percent to Ted Blaszak’s 47 percent. Both races had write-ins .

In Rosalia, incumbent Bob Hill had garnered 51 percent of the vote over Janet Meier Strohl’s 49 percent.

In Uniontown, write-ins numbered 34 compared to Steve Kelly’s 27 for council position #5. Initial tabulations only count individual write-ins if the number justifies doing so which will happen in this case.

In Pullman, Al Sorensen was the only incumbent to hold his seat, leading Eric Fejeran with more than 240 votes. For position #5, Brandon Chapman had 58 percent of the vote over Jeff Hawbaker’s 41 percent. Dan Record has only four more votes that Garren Shannon for the ward #1 council position #2 seat. On the school board Karl Johanson, 47 percent, and Dean Kinzer, 45 percent, were bowing out to challengers Nathan Roberts, 53 percent, and Amanda Tanner, 55 percent.

All state advisory votes were soundly reject by county voters.

The next count of ballots will happen today, Nov. 9. Final count and certification will be Nov. 28.

For a full listing of county propositions and contested races, see page 4A.