The second count of returns from the 2019 Primary Election for candidates for four Yakima City Council seats were released this afternoon by the Yakima County Auditor’s office. Only the top two vote getters in each race move on to the November 5th General Election.
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, Elliana Macias, has 46.34% (versus 42.86% after the first count) Kenton Gartrell now has 43.77% of the vote (compared to 46.55% after last night’s first count), and Matthew Sagan has received 9.16% of the vote (compared to 9.61% last night).
In District 3, Patricia Byers continues to lead all contenders with 42.66% (compared to 45.17% after the first count). Thomas Sund stands at 34.30% (versus 34.73% on election night) and Berenice Ponce has received 22.44% (up from 19.38% last night). 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 continues to lead the District 5 field with 37.07% of the vote (versus 37.54% after the first count) followed by Liz Hallock with 32.44% (compared to 31.51% last night) and Mark Collins with 30.21% (slightly down from 30.74% on election night).
Holly Cousens, who is seeking reelection to the Council District 7 seat, leads her two opponents with 68.53% of the primary vote (Cousens had 68.36% of the vote after the first count). Sarah Towell has gotten 17.68% (down from 18.28% last night) and Tracey Bautista has so far received 13.00% (an increase from the 12.55% she had after the election night count.
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.