Pfaff edges Mayor McCown in first count

Former Garfield Mayor Jarrod Pfaff edged Mayor Ray McCown by 11 votes Tuesday night in a first count of the primary election votes. McCown and two incumbents at Pullman appear to be headed for the general election primary after the first count of ballots.

Pfaff received 72 votes, and McCown received 61. Terri Lindeman, the third candidate in the mayoral race, received 27.

Total first count for the primary election was 2,589 ballots with an estimated 250 to 300 remaining to be counted.

The three-way race for the Garfield town council seat vacated by Daymon Marple was narrowed down to Tom Tevlin with 112 votes and Kevin Pickron with 40. Rebecca Strange-Jones, one of the proponents of a move to impeach McCown, had nine votes in the first count. The impeachment petition last year was disqualified by the court.

At Pullman, incumbent Karl M. Johanson had 528 votes for the school board’s #4 seat. Nathan J. Roberts was second with 376.

Pullman Councilman Al Sorensen had an even stronger lead for his Council Ward #1 seat with 501 votes. Eric Fejeran garnered 215, and Hannah Kraus, who opted out of the race, received 140 votes.

Contenders for the Ward #2 seat vacated by Fritz Hughes were led by Garren Shannon with 82 votes and Dan Records with 50. Austin Brown was third with 37.

As of Tuesday night, only one of Farmington’s three levy propositions had 60 percent yes votes required to pass in a count of 44 ballots. The proposition to finance the purchase of fire and other equipment was passing with 28 yes and 16 no for 63.64 percent. The levy for street maintenance, repair and improvements booked 23 yes and 21 no for 52.27 percent, and the proposal to bolster the current expense fund garnered 56.82 percent approval.

Garfield’s street levy was also below 60 percent with 94 yes, 66 no for 58.75 percent.

Both of the cemetery district propositions were passing. St. John’s cemetery district had a 164 yes for 77.73 percent. Colfax’s Cemetery District’s request for $250,000 finished just above the bar at 61.45 percent with 381 yes votes.

Among ballots yet to be tallied in the next count will be those deposited in polling collection boxes at Colfax and Pullman. The boxes are closed at the 8 p.m. polling deadline. Late arriving mailed ballots with the Aug, 1 deadline postmark will also be counted.

While the ballots were run through the tabulator Tuesday, four members of the Whitman County Democrats signed into observe at the count. Results were not printed off until 8 p.m.