By 8 p.m. Election Day, 83 percent, or 49,925, of the approximately 60,000 ballots received by the Whatcom County auditor’s office had been counted.
The auditor’s office had about 10,000 more ballots to count that were already in the office, in addition to ballots still arriving by mail and ballots in drop boxes after the last pick up of the day on November 2, county auditor Diana Bradrick said. Drop boxes are locked at 8 p.m. Election Day and ballots aren’t brought to the auditor’s office until the morning.
“We still have a lot of ballots to process and tally,” Bradrick said. “The last results will be released the Monday before certification.”
Under 32 percent of the 156,972 registered voters in Whatcom County voted this election. This is less than half of the nearly 81 percent of registered voters in Whatcom County who voted in the November 2020 election.
The ballot measures made for an interesting race, with the Birch Bay library in question while it looks like North Whatcom Fire and Rescue will have to look for additional funding sources after voters rejected its levy.
Proposition 2021-14 would establish a Birch Bay library capital facility area that will raise taxes by 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to pay for the Birch Bay Vogt Community Library. Voters were 58.5 percent (1,587 votes) in favor and 41.5 percent (1,124 votes) against the levy. However, over 60 percent of voters need to approve it and over 40 percent of people who voted in the last general election need to vote.
Christine Perkins, Whatcom County Library System executive director, said the library measure is short on ballots but supporters remain hopeful as the results are updated. Perkins roughly estimated the library would need about 350 more votes, and a significant number of those would need to be in support of the levy.
“We’re so close,” she said. “We’re really cautiously optimistic that the voters will see this through.”
Preliminary results show voters rejected proposition 2021-9, which aimed to increase the North Whatcom Fire and Rescue levy by 30 cents per $1,000 to $1.45 per $1,000 of assessed value to fund additional firefighters and purchase new equipment. The levy failed with 59 percent (4,827 votes) against and 40 percent (3,346 votes) in favor of the levy. The fire district added the levy to the November ballot after it was rejected in the August primary.
The final results of the election will be certified Tuesday, November 23.
Below are the results from Blaine, Birch Bay and Whatcom County’s competitive races as of 8 p.m. November 2:
• Blaine City Council Ward 1, Position 2: Kerena Higgins received 869 votes (58.6 percent), leading J. Calvin Armerding, who received 609 votes (41 percent).
• Blaine City Council Ward 2, Position 4: Rhyan Lopez received 975 votes (63.8 percent), leading Colin Hawkins, who received 546 votes (35.7 percent).
• Blaine City Council Ward 3, Position 6: Eric Davidson received 756 votes (50.4 percent), leading Barbara Sturdivant, who received 740 votes (49.3 percent).
• Blaine City Council, At-Large Position 7: Mike Hill received 997 votes (64.4 percent), leading Sukhwant Gill, who received 548 votes (35.4 percent).
• Blaine school board, District 3: Erika Creydt received 2,312 votes (50.9 percent), leading Bob Feaster, who received 2,223 votes (49 percent).
• Blaine school board, District 5: Laura McKinney received 3,663 votes (81 percent), leading Rocky Butler, who received 829 votes (18 percent).
• Whatcom County Council At-Large Position A: Barry Buchanan received 25,693 votes (53.8 percent), leading Kamal Bhachu, who received 21,836 votes (45.7 percent).
• Port of Bellingham, District 1: Michael Shepard received 25,961 votes (55 percent), leading John Huntley, who received 21,095 votes (44.7 percent).
• Port of Bellingham, District 2: Ken Bell received 25,842 votes (54.6 percent), leading Kelly Krieger, who received 20,986 votes (44.4 percent).
• Blaine-Birch Bay Park and Recreation District 2, Position 1: Jesse Creydt received 3,089 votes (72 percent), leading David Halme, who received 1,138 votes (26.9 percent).
• Birch Bay Water and Sewer District, Position 1: Jeff Benner received 1,579 votes (75 percent), leading Pedro Nieto, who received 506 votes (24 percent).
Sheli Moore and Billy Brown retained their seats for Blaine-Birch Bay Park and Recreation District positions 2 and 4, respectively, after running unopposed. John Crawford and Kimberly Calman-McMurray ran unopposed for North Whatcom Fire and Rescue commissioner positions 1 and 5.
To view updated results,
visit co.whatcom.wa.us/1732/current-election.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here