Election book closes without changes

Results from the Nov. 3 general election stayed true to the latest count after the county canvass board certified the results Tuesday morning.

Three races remained close, but not close enough to trigger mandatory recounts.

The final count gave Roger Marcus a six-vote edge over David Arrasmith in the race for seat seven on the Palouse city council, 196 to 190.

Jim Stenhouse beat out Brady Kiesz in the race for Rosalia Mayor, 133 to 125. In Pullman, Jeff Hawbaker took a 440 to 404 vote lead win over David Gibney.

The one vote approval of the Oakesdale Parks and Recreation levy measure passed with a 60.18 approval rate, 201 to 133. The last ballot count added four votes to the total with three in favor.

The final count included 10,722 ballots. That amounts to a 55 percent turnout from the 19,376 registered voters in Whitman County.

The county canvass board rejected 145 of the 159 ballots marked questionable by the county elections staff. Of those, 64 were rejected because they were postmarked past the Nov. 3 election deadline, 12 were rejected because they were unsigned and four were determined not to be registered voters in Whitman County.

Thirteen of the 64 ballots that were flagged because their signatures did not match registration signatures were deemed valid. One of the ballots came from Rosalia and the voter backed Stenhouse.

Another 1,041 ballots were returned to the auditor’s office because they were mailed to invalid addresses.