The latest returns for the 2013 General Election show that two incumbent Yakima City Council members have maintained 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.
As of Friday, November 15th, current Council Member Dave Ettl had received about 65.35% (8,957 votes) of the vote compared to his challenger Charles Noel who had gotten 33.52% (4,595 votes) of the vote. 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, had 53.82% (7,580 votes) of the vote while his opponent, Carole Folsom-Hill, had received 45.57% (6,418 votes) of the vote.
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. Yakima voters are overwhelmingly approving Proposition 1 with 67.39% (9,366 votes) voting for the measure while 32.61% (4,532 votes) voting no.
YakimaCounty uses an all-mail-in voting system, so ballots that were postmarked before midnight on November 5th will still be considered valid. 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.
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