Initial returns for the 2013 General Election show that two incumbent Yakima City Council members have built substantial leads over their challengers and that voters are heavily supporting a measure that would require a so-called “super majority” vote by the City Council for new taxes or tax increases to be approved.
Current Council Member Dave Ettl has so far received 65% (5,632votes) of the vote compared to his challenger Charles Noel who has gotten about 34% (2,940 votes) of the vote so far. Ettl was first elected to the Yakima City Council in 2009. Incumbent Council Member Bill Lover, who has been on the City Council since 2005, has just over 54% (4,797 votes) of the vote while his opponent, Carole Folsom-Hill, has received about 45% (4,013 votes) of the vote in early returns.
If approved, City of Yakima Proposition 1 would make it a requirement that for new taxes or tax increases to take effect, five of the seven Yakima City Council members would have to vote in favor of them. At this point, Yakima voters are overwhelmingly approving Proposition 1 with almost 69% (5,992 votes) voting for the measure while about 32% (2,741 votes) voting no.
The Yakima County Auditors office conducts only one count of ballots on election night and, consequently, issues just one set of returns. The election night count usually represents about 20% of the ballots that have been returned to the Auditor’s office prior to election day. YakimaCounty uses an all-mail-in voting system, so ballots that are postmarked before midnight on November 5th will still be considered valid.
Additional ballot counts will be conducted over the next few days. Ballot counts will continue periodically until all of the ballots that were received before the midnight November 5th deadline have been tabulated. The 2013 General Election will be certified on November 26th.
Numerous other city and town council, school board, special purpose district races, a Wahluke School District Levy, and a Naches Parks & Recreation District levy fill out the ballot in YakimaCounty. Statewide initiatives addressing the labeling of genetically engineered food and setting penalties for interfering with signature gatherers, along with several “advisory votes” also were before voters in this year’s general election.
– end –