Handy widens lead

WHITMAN COUNTY--Tom Handy, the challenger for the Whitman County Commissioner District 2 seat, widened his lead over incumbent Dean Kinzer in the subsequent ballot count.

The county elections office added 1,802 ballots to the election night count, bringing the total rate of return to 31.18% with 6,946 so far. The extra ballots gave Handy 162 more votes and Kinzer 155. The two are now at 653 and 615, respectively, of the 2,534 votes cast in that race.

Dist. 9 Representative incumbent Republican Mary Dye widened her lead over challenger Libertarian Brett Borden of Pullman with the count in Whitman County now 4127-Dye and 1599-Borden.

State Senator Mark Schoesler also increased the distance between the Republican incumbent and Democratic challenger Jenn Goulet with 3,822 to 2,763.

The additional ballots did not change the standing of the top three governor candidates with Jay Inslee adding 705 votes for 2,899, giving him 42.28% of the county vote. Loren Culp remains second with 1,135 votes after picking up 317 in the second count, for 16.55%. Raul Garcia has 889 votes for 12.96% after adding 291.

Colfax’s Dylan Nails added nine votes to his election night tally for a total of 78 which is 1.14% of the county.

Next count of ballots is scheduled for 9 p.m. today, Thursday, with an estimated 3,500 ballots to count.