For full Aug. 7 top-two primary results and how island residents voted in the state races, go to https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/current/sanjuan/.
According to the San Juan County Elections office, almost 54 percent of registered voters turned out for the election. There are 13,074 registered voters in the county and 7,039 ballots were counted.
Prosecuting attorney
Randy Gaylord has taken the lead over Nick Power in the race for San Juan County Prosecuting Attorney. However, both candidates will still face each other in the November election. The race is considered a “top two” primary because the two candidates will head to the general election on Nov. 6.
The primary elections were: Gaylord with 3,524 votes at 56.23 percent and Power with 2,743 votes at 43.77 percent.
Power is a local attorney, who says he represents clients on civil rights, employment, land-use, whistleblower and election litigation.
Gaylord, the current county prosecuting attorney, is running for his sixth consecutive re-election, after initially winning the seat in 1994.
Both Power and Gaylord are running as Democrats, but the primary is not a partisan race, although the positions are required to choose a party. County prosecutors in Washington have been partisan positions since statehood in 1889, except for the six charter counties that changed the format. In 2006, a charter was passed in the islands that all elected positions become nonpartisan, except the prosecuting attorney. When the charter review commission met in 2012, the prosecuting attorney remained partisan.
Lopez levy
Lopez Island School District’s request for a levy to replace the expiring educational programs and operations levy – formerly the maintenance and operations levy – passed by 74.76 percent or 939 votes.
The four-year levy, collecting from 2019–22, is for 76 cents per $1,000 assessed value of a home. Its purpose is to raise money to help fund school enrichment operations and programs within the district. Enrichment activities include extracurricular activities, additional courses beyond core requirements and early-learning programs.
The school board determined that existing and future monies in the school’s general fund is insufficient to properly meet the needs of the district’s students.
“This levy is essential for Lopez and Decatur Schools to continue current educational programs,” wrote Dixie Budke and Del Guenther in the voter guide’s pro-levy argument. “The renewal levy will provide money necessary to fund a range of expenses and programs at Lopez and Decatur Schools. Items funded by the local levy include: basic utilities like electricity and phone, sports, drama, healthy food and garden program, support for students with special needs, staff professional development, art, music and school nurse hours.”
There were no written arguments against the levy in the voter’s guide.
FH North Precinct Committee Officer – Rep
Heather Christensen earned 70.59 percent of the vote with 60 votes and Kelley J. Unger had 29.41 percent and 25 votes.
Orcas East Precinct Committee Officer – Dem
Sharon Abreu earned 256 votes at 82.05 percent and Brian (Schmitty) Schmitz had 56 votes at 17.95 percent.
Congressional District 2, statewide results
Six candidates competed for the U.S. Congressional District 2 seat: Stonewall Jackson Bird (Green Party), Collin Richard Carlson (Democrat), Uncle Mover (GOP), Brian Luke (Libertarian), Gary Franco (Independent) and current Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett.
Larsen earned 86,276 votes at 65.56 percent. Carlson was the runner-up at 7.63 percent of the votes.
U.S. Senator, statewide results
Twenty-nine candidates were on the ballot for the U.S. Senator position. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, took the lead with 778,516 votes at 55.09 percent. Republican Susan Hutchison earned 342,146 votes at 24.21 percent.
Legislative District 40, position 1, statewide results
Democrats Alex Ramel, Debra Lekanoff, Rud Browne and Tom Pasma and Republicans Michael Petrish and Daniel Miller were in the race for Legislative District 40, state representative position 1.
Lekanoff had 9,727 votes, Ramel earned 6,606 votes and Browne had 6,592.