No change to Whatcom County races after election results are posted Friday evening
Evan Jones appears to have defeated James Erb for Superior Court position 2 judge seat, in Whatcom County’s closest remaining race of the 2020 general election.
After the most recent results were posted at 4:26 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, Jones, a deputy felony prosecuting attorney for the Whatcom County Prosecutor’s Office, had 51% of the vote compared to 49% for Erb, who is senior assistant attorney for the city of Bellingham.
Blaine councilwoman Alicia Rule and state Rep. Sharon Shewmake of Bellingham held their leads for the 42nd Legislative District’s two open House seats after the fourth day of returns.
Their Republican opponents both conceded Wednesday night:
▪ Rule led state Rep. Luanne Van Werven, R-Lynden, for House position 1 by 51% to 49%.
▪ Shewmake led Jennifer Sefzik of Custer for House position 2 by 52% to 48%.
Turnout was 87%, second to the record 88% of the county’s registered voters who cast ballots in 2008 when Barrack Obama won the presidency.
Statewide turnout was 79%, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Whatcom had the third-highest turnout rate, after San Juan and Garfield counties.
Some 1,445 of the 139,116 ballots that were received through Thursday were challenged or rejected, according to Elections Supervisor Amy Grasher:
▪ 30 ballots were postmarked too late to be accepted.
▪ 267 ballots weren’t signed.
▪ 1,148 ballots had signatures that didn’t match the ones on file.
Voters who didn’t sign their ballot or whose signatures were challenged have until the election is certified at 10 a.m. Nov. 24 to fix or “cure” their ballot.
Friday’s count included ballots with valid postmarks in Friday’s mail.
An updated count was scheduled for late Thursday afternoon, Nov. 12, and the election will be certified Tuesday, Nov. 24.
An estimated 249 ballots remained to be counted in the office, according to the auditor’s website.
This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 4:53 PM.
