Late ballot counts swing Whitman County percentages toward Democrats' side

Whitman County's late swing to the Democratic side continued late Tuesday when the elections office reported a new tally with 1,233 more votes for Friday's and Tuesday’s counts for a total of 17,312. The tally put the county's return at 68.898 percent.

An estimated 150 ballots remain to be counted with a final count set for next Monday, Nov. 26.

Certification deadline for the state general election is Nov. 27.

The latest counts bumped Pullman Democrat Matthew Sutherland into a lead over Republican incumbent Joe Schmick of Colfax in the race for the state legislature seat.

Sutherland pegged a 87-vote lead for 50.26 percent with an 8,424 total. Schmick now has 8,337 in the county.

For the overall count in the five counties in District Nine, Schmick had a 60.6 percent total with 31,162 votes compared to 20,164 for Sutherland.

Democrat Lisa Brown now has 51.88 percent of the county tally with a 709-vote edge over Cathy McMorris Rodgers in the 5th District congressional race. Count now is 8,831 for Brown and 8,192 for McMorris Rogers, who took the overall win on election night.

For the 10-county Fifth District race, McMorris Rogers won with 54.9 percent of the count, 168,605 to 138,471 as of the end of last week.

The Democratic win in the congressional race follows on a Democratic win in the 2016 presidential race when Whitman was the only county to return a majority for Hillary Clinton on the east side of the state.

In the county returns, challenger Christina Nelson extended her lead over incumbent county treasurer Mark Clinton to 53.09 percent of the vote with 6,827 to 6,033. Both candidates in the race for county treasurer are Republicans.

The count for district court judge remained close to the election night margins with John Hart taking 64.83 percent of the vote at 9,623 and Rob Rembert 35.37 percent at 5,266.

Town measures to finish under 60 percent approval were Tekoa's request for a $25,000 street levy which finished with 58.52 percent, and Farmington's request for a $15,000 levy for the current expense fund which finished with 58.44 percent.