Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
A voter drops off a ballot Tuesday in downtown Shelton.
Note: This story has been updated to reflect Wednesday's 4:30 p.m. second ballot count.
Miguel Gutierrez and Sharon Trask are leading the race for Mason County Commissioner District 3.
Gutierrez, a Democrat, received a majority of the votes with 2,119, or 43.93%. Trask, a Republican, accumulated 1,500 votes, or 30.27%. Mark Carlson, a Republican, trails Trask by 3.5% of the vote at 26.90%, which is 1,333 votes.
Only residents of Mason County Commissioner District 3 were able to vote in the primary. The location includes Shelton and the area east of Shelton, stopping at Spencer and Phillips Lake, and Pickering Passage.
Of the 12,947 registered voters in the district, 4,955 ballots were cast for a 39.55% turnout.
Gutierrez could not be reached for comment before the Journal's print deadline.
Trask is the incumbent and has served since 2019. She is the vice-chair.
"Honestly, nervous and I don't think anybody should still be too confident because it's an election, but I'm encouraged," Trask told the Journal.
If the results hold, Trask will be running against Gutierrez, who she said was a good man and said they previously spoke about running a nice, clean campaign.
"I'm really looking forward to that," Trask said.
She said leading up to the general election, she will "continue doing as good as I can for the county and working on maintaining the trust of the people."
To the people that voted for her, she said "thank you so much for your trust and thank you for your vote and I look forward to representing and continuing to support you."
Carlson said in an email the initial primary results are still too close to call and he is anxiously awaiting the results.
"I would like to thank everyone for all their support for me and us in this journey to make a change in our
county," Carlson said.
In other county races, Patti McLean leads George Blush in the race for assessor with 59.36% of the vote with 9,734 votes while Blush received 40.39% of the vote with 6,624 votes.
Paddy McGuire leads Steve Duenkel in the race for auditor. McGuire drew 8,519 votes for 51.21% of the vote, while Duenkel received 8,097 votes for 48.67%.
Sharon Moore-Fogo leads the race for clerk with 8,347 votes for 51.5% of the vote. Charles Rhodes received 8,158 votes for 48.67% of the vote.
In unopposed races, Jaime Taylor received 95.71% of the vote for county coroner. Michael Dorcy received 95.12% of the vote for Mason County Prosecutor. Ryan Spurling drew 95.29% of the vote for sheriff and Elisabeth Frazier took 94.26% of the vote for treasurer.
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