First Batch of General Election Returns Released

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The first returns of the 2019 General Election have given an indication of which candidates are likely to be elected to the four open Yakima City Council seats on this year’s ballot.

The Yakima County Auditor’s 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.  Yakima County uses an all-mail-in voting system, so ballots that are postmarked before midnight on November 5th will still be considered valid for the General Election.

In the race to replace Dulce Gutierrez in Yakima City Council District 1, Kenton Gartrell has 60% of the vote compared to the 40% that has gone to Elliana Macias.

In District 3, Patricia Byers leads Thomas Sund 59.10% to 40.18%.  The District 3 seat is currently held by Carmen Mendez, who chose not to run for reelection.

The District 5 seat is currently held by Kathy Coffey, who also is not running this time around. Soneya Lund has so far collected 58.85% of the General Election vote.  Liz Hallock trails Lund with 40.42% of the vote. 

Holly Cousens, who is seeking reelection to the Council District 7 seat, has received 74.97% of the primary vote.  Sarah Towell won the right to challenge Cousens based on the August Primary Election vote but announced a few weeks ago that she was no longer interested in serving if elected.  Towell’s announcement was made after it was too late to have her name removed from the General Election ballot.  Towell has so far received 23.80% of the General Election vote.

I-976, a statewide ballot measure that would limit car tab fees and eliminate transportation benefit districts, is currently heading toward passage.  So far, 52.77% of voters statewide have voted for the measure compared to 47.23% who have voted against it. 

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 2019 General Election will be certified on November 26th.