Tight Area Races Still Undecided

Greg Prestegard, 3rd from left and Mike Backman, far right Wahkiakum Eagle photo.

While most area races have been essentially decided, candidates for two local races are still waiting to find out who will be the victor.  A hand recount is likely in the race for Gearhart City Mayor. Candidate Dianne Widdop received 346 votes to fellow office seeker Bob Shortman’s 344.   Just two votes separated the two candidates as of last night’s unofficial tally.

In Wahkiakum County, Washington, another close race will likely be essentially decided tomorrow afternoon.  In the race for position 1 on the Wahkiakum County Commission,  Democrat Greg Prestegard (PRESS-teh-gard) had a nearly 6% lead over Independent Mike Backman in the August Primary.  In last night’s count, there was just a 20 vote difference.  

By his own estimate, from August until this week, candidate Backman took his campaign door to door to a large majority of Wahkiakum households.  

Backman.wav  (:10)  “ We did it for quite a long time, I would say about 80% of houses in the county.  I got a lot of positives, they liked the idea that we wanted to hear what they had to say, and wanted to actually represent them.”

Prestegard said he worked about 5 hours per day to reach about half of Wahkiakum voters in the waning days before the election. 

Prestegard.wav  (:19)  “I went around to houses  that I kinda targeted that I thought may be pivotal places on the campaign trail, and talked to people that basically were a little on the negative side previously, or they weren’t really supporting me – and those were the people I really wanted to talk to.”

Wahkiakum County Auditor Diane Tischer (TISH-er) said there were 308 votes as of this afternoon left to count. In Washington,  ballots can be postmarked the day of the election, and late ballots can trickle in after election day.  The results of the unofficial final count will be made available tomorrow afternoon after 1pm. (1:13)