The first returns of the 2017 Primary Election are giving an early indication of which of the 12 candidates for three Yakima City Council positions being contested will advance to the General Election on November 7th. 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 1st will still be considered valid for the Primary Election.
In Yakima City Council District 2, Pablo Gonzalez leads with 34.13% of the vote and is followed by Jason White with 25.26%. Incumbent Councilmember Avina Gutiérrez and Maud Scott both have 20.14 % of the vote.
Keith Effler leads the six contenders in District 4 with 29.63% of the vote. Kay Funk has 22.36% of the vote. Chelsea Mack is next with 19.60% of the vote, followed by Tony Sandoval with 12.89%, Sandra Belzer with 10.68%, and Williams with 4.52%.
In District 6, Brad Hill has 73.62%, and Macaela Razo has 13.80% of the vote. Joe Mann’s name appears on the ballot for District 6, but Mann withdrew from the race. His withdrawl took place too late to have his named removed from the official ballot. Still, Mann has received 12.45% of the vote.
In Union Gap, Position 7 on the City Council positions is being contested in the Primary Election. In the Position 7 race, Sandy Dailey has received 35.57% of the vote followed by Eddie Perez with 34.11% and Curt Rosenkranz with 29.74%.
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 1st deadline have been tabulated. The 2017 Primary Election will be certified on August 15th.