Republican Joe Kent took a 960-vote lead over Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler in Monday’s voting results, putting him in a more likely spot to advance to the general election for Washington’s 3rd Congressional District.
As of Monday night, Kent had 47,623 votes, or 22.79 percent of the 208,993 votes cast so far. Herrera Beutler had 46,663 votes, or 22.33 percent of the total. Herrera Beutler led on election night, but Kent steadily gained ground as more ballots were counted. On Friday night, Kent nearly closed the gap between himself and the incumbent, leaving 257 votes between the two candidates for the position.
“We will watch the vote count for another day before making any declarative statements,” said Craig Wheeler, Herrera Beutler’s campaign manager.
Both Republican candidates are vying for the second ballot position in November to face Democrat Marie Glusenkamp Perez of Skamania. She has shown an early lead against the major players and currently has 30.97% of the vote. Perez is the most popular candidate in Clark, Pacific and Skamania counties.
Herrera Beutler is up 303 votes in the Cowlitz district previously held by Perez on Thursday. Kent leads in Thurston and Lewis counties.
About 10,000 votes remain to be counted in Clark County, the district’s most populous county. Voter turnout jumped to 40.79 percent as of Monday night. Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said the remaining ballots should be counted by Tuesday.
Clark County expects to provide an update at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, followed by Thurston County at 5 p.m. Cowlitz County will be the next update at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The next ballot count in Lewis County will be Aug. 15, and Skamania, Pacific and Waquiakum counties are scheduled for Aug. 16, when election results will be certified.
The results are subject to a machine count if the difference is less than 2,000 votes and less than 0.5 percent of the total votes for both candidates. There will be a manual recount if the margin is less than 150 votes and less than a quarter of a percent of the total votes cast.
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