Preliminary election results favor Haven, Branch for commissioner

PATEROS – Preliminary results from the first count of votes from the August 4 primary election shows that the Pateros Emergency Services Levy that went down to defeat when first presented to voters last April, is passing this time around with 63 percent of eligible voters approving and 37 percent opposed.
With 73 votes counted so far, 46 support the levy while 27 oppose it. Last April, 107 voters cast ballots according to figures from the Okanogan County Auditor’s office. Of those, 57 opposed the measure and 50 supported causing the levy to fall short of the 50 percent simple majority needed.
The two races for Okanogan County Commissioner find District 2 incumbent Andy Hover trailing challenger Katie Haven by 102 votes, with 1,570 (51.68%) for Haven and 1,468 (48.32%) for Hover.
District 1 incumbent Chris Branch leads challenger Shauna Beeman 56.35 percent (1,140 votes) to 43.65 percent (883 votes).
Incumbent Dan Newhouse has a 20 percent lead over his nearest challenger in his bid for another term as Fourth Congressional District Representative in the Okanogan County vote count. Newhouse has 5.62 percent (4,457 votes) over two-time democratic challenger Douglas McKinney of Richland. Newhouse has held the office since 2015. McKinney lost a previous bid for the office in 2016.
In the race for 12th District State Representative, Position 1, Republican incumbent Keith Goehner has a narrow lead over Winthrop Democratic challenger Adrianne Moore by about one percentage point, 50.58 percent (1,917 votes) for Goehner to 49.42% (1,873 votes) for Moore.
Almost 40 candidates threw hats in the ring for state governor. In Okanogan County Loren Culp is the only challenger to break double digits in his challenge to incumbent Jay Inslee who is seeking this third term. The Republic Republican has 34.02 percent (2,830) of Okanogan County votes with Inslee leading comfortably with 3,854 votes for 46.33 percent.
Marty McLendon, a previous candidate for Lt. Governor, leads the Okanogan County vote to replace Cyrus Habib who is not running for reelection. McLendon lost to Habib in 2016 and leads his nearest challenger, Denny Heck by 250 votes in the initial Okanogan County counts. Of the remaining 10 candidates for the No. 2 state job, Joseph Brumbles has 13 percent of the early vote and three others each have 10 percent.
Incumbent Kim Wyman has more than 60 percent of the Okanogan County vote for Secretary of State as does incumbent State Treasurer Duane Davidson. Incumbents are also leading in the race for Attorney General (Bob Ferguson), Commissioner of Public Lands (Hilary Franz), and Superintendent of Public Instruction (Chris Reykdal).
Challenger Chris Leyba is leading incumbent Pat McCarthy with 60 percent of the Okanogan County vote while challenger Chirayu Avinash Patel is ahead of incumbent Mike Kreidler for Insurance Commissioner.
Incumbents Jacquelin Maycumber and Joel Kretz are both well head of challengers in the respective positions one and two for Seventh District State Representatives.
Okanogan County Elections Administrator Jamie Groomes said the next count is scheduled on Friday, August 7 with approximately 2,835 ballots left to count.