The first returns of the 2019 Primary Election have given an indication of which candidates for four Yakima City Council seats will move on to the November 5th General Election. Only the top two vote getters in each race move on to the General Election.
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 August 6th will still be considered valid for the Primary Election.
In the race to replace Dulce Gutierrez in Yakima City Council District 1, Kenton Gartrell has 46.55% of the vote, Elliana Macias has 42.86%, and Matthew Sagan has received 9.61% of the vote.
In District 3, Patricia Byers leads all contenders with 45.17% of the vote. Thomas Sund stands at 34.73% and Berenice Ponce has received 19.38%. 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 is leading the District 5 field with 37.54% of the vote followed by Liz Hallock with 31.51% and Mark Collins with 30.74%.
Holly Cousens, who is seeking reelection to the Council District 7 seat, leads her two opponents with 68.36% of the primary vote. Sarah Towell has gotten 18.28% of the vote and Tracey Bautista has so far received 12.55%.
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 August 6th deadline have been tabulated. The 2019 Primary Election will be certified on August 20th.