Here’s who’s leading after first count in Whatcom’s primary election

State Sen. Simon Sefzik apparently will face state Rep. Sharon Shewmake in a partisan battle in the 42nd Legislative District, where the two House seats are held by Democrats and the Senate seat is held by a Republican.

Sefzik, a Ferndale Republican, and Shewmake, a Bellingham Democrat, were the leading candidates for state Senate from an initial ballot count that was released after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 2, in the Washington state primary election.

Shewmake decided to challenge for the Senate seat held by Sefzik, who was appointed to the Senate in January, instead of running for a third term as the 42nd District’s position 2 House representative — leaving that race wide open.

Only the two candidates with the most votes, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the Nov. 8 general election in Washington state’s “top two” primary, where voting is conducted by mail.

Whatcom County voter turnout was 35% among the county’s 155,458 registered voters, according to the Whatcom County Auditor’s Office.

This initial election tally includes ballots from official drop boxes and those that were received by mail through Tuesday and scanned into a closed computer system in the Whatcom County Auditor’s Office, according to previous Bellingham Herald reporting on election security.

Votes are verified, then downloaded to a portable drive and uploaded to the state Secretary of State’s Office, which is on a separate computer network.

An updated ballot count is scheduled for about 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3. That total will include ballots that were placed into drop boxes before they were locked at 8 p.m. Tuesday and ballots with valid postmarks that arrived in the mail.

2nd District U.S. Congress

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, was leading his nine challengers with 48% of the total vote for Whatcom County’s only U.S. House seat after recent redistricting. The 2nd District now includes all of Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan and Island counties and part of Snohomish County.

Republican Dan Matthews was in second place with 18%, followed by Democrat Jason Call with 13%. MAGA Republican Cody Hart had 9%, Doug “Yoshe” Revelle (no party preference) 0.4%, Republican Bill Wheeler 4%, Conservative Party candidate Jon Welch 0.7%, Republican Brandon Lee Stalnaker 0.6%, Republican Leif Johnson 2% and Republican Carrie R. Kennedy 4%.

40th District

Only the two House members’ terms were facing election this year in the 40th District, which includes parts of Whatcom and Skagit counties and all of San Juan County.

▪ State Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Bow, was unopposed. Lekanoff had 95% of the vote.

▪ State Rep. Alex Ramel was leading union official Trevor Smith for House Position 2. Ramel had 75% of the vote to 22% for Smith.

Both are Democrats who live in Bellingham.

42nd District

Both state House seats and the state Senate seat were open in Washington’s 42nd District, which includes northern Bellingham neighborhoods and the rest of northern and eastern Whatcom County.

Each race had at least three candidates:

▪ Shewmake had 48% of the vote and Sefzik had 33% after the first tally was released Tuesday night. Whatcom County Councilman Ben Elenbaas finished third with 19% and likely was eliminated.

▪ State Rep. Alicia Rule, D-Blaine, likely will face Tawsha (Dykstra) Thompson, a Lynden Republican, in the 42nd District House position 1 race. Rule was leading with 49% of the vote after the first ballot returns were posted online Tuesday. Thompson had 36% and Kamal Bhachu of Blaine, who was running as a Republican, was in third place with 15%.

▪ Joe Timmons, a Democrat who’s serving as Gov. Jay Inslee’s regional representative in Northwest Washington, was leading with 29% of the vote for House position 2, followed by Republican Dan Johnson with 27% of Tuesday’s vote. Kyle Christensen, a Republican and former mayor of Sumas and now working as Whatcom County recovery manager was in third place with 24% and Democrat Richard May of Blaine was fourth with 20%.

Prosecuting attorney

Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Richey, a Democrat, was unopposed for a second term. Richey had 95% of the vote.

District Court judge position 2

Jonathan Rands was leading with 42% of Tuesday’s vote, followed by Gordon M. Jenkins with 36%. David Nelson was in third place with 22%.

Live voting result updates for Aug. 2, 2022, primary election in Whatcom County, WA