Cusick council race tied

NEWPORT — After the final vote count and certification Tuesday, Nov. 25, the race between incumbent Afton Servas and challenger Everett Alford is tied in the Cusick Town Council Member No. 1 race.

“After tabulating the last 60 ballots, we now have a tie with Everett Alford and Afton Servas with 19 votes each,” Auditor Marianne Nichlols said. A write-in candidate in that race, Haley Adams, received 17 votes. Write-in candidates must register with the Auditor’s Office to be counted.

The race has gone back and forth in the counts, with Alford leading by five after the first count, then Servas pulling ahead by two after the second, now a tie.

Next is a hand recount starting at 9 a.m. Monday, Dec. 1. Then, the Auditor’s Office will canvas at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2 and certify the results. If the race is still tied, the winner is chosen by lot after certification that day, which usually does not take more than half an hour.

Nichols said there have been ties before in Precinct Committee Officer races, which are races within the Democratic and Republican parties. Nichols said she doesn’t remember a tied race for a regular candidate. In the PCO races, two business cards were placed in a container and the winner was the first one drawn.

Write-in candidates played a bigger role in this year’s election.

In the race for Cusick Mayor, write-in candidate Robert Reinhardt was certified the winner with 32 votes to 18 for incumbent mayor Tinal Alford.

There was also a write-in candidate for Cusick Town Council Member No. 2 race, which was won by Donna Dana, with 29 votes. Write-in candidate Neala Cox received 20 votes.

In the mayor race for Metaline, Pete Daggett won with 55 votes, outpolling write-in William Bisson, who had 14 votes.

Kenneth Weiss won the Ione Town Council Member No. 1 race with 56 votes. Write-in Joseph Sterba garnered 16 votes.

In the race for Fire District 4 commissioner, Alan Thompson was the winner with 286 votes to 217 for JoAnn Boggs. However, 15 ballots originally did not include this race. Though the Auditor’s Office distributed corrected ballots, called each voter and hand-tallied the results, only three ballots returned.

Sherice McAnerin defeated Walter Minsal 78-19 in the open race for Town of Metaline Falls Mayor. The position was open after incumbent mayor Tara Leininger was defeated in the primary election.

Also in Metaline Falls, Mark Lockwood had 61 votes to Robbin Witty’s 33 for Town Council Member No. 2.

In the Newport City Council race for the No. 1 position, Nathan Weathers defeated John Spring 212-184.

Ken Timmreck won 64 votes to 31 for Cory McNeal in the race for Ione Town Council Member No. 5.

For the school districts, Pend Oreille County voters voted no on both capital levy propositions. Riverside School District’s $18 million capital levy failed 141 no votes to 119 yes votes, while Deer Park School District’s $14.5 million capital levy failed by a 15-4 vote.

Gary Vanderholm won the Riverside School District Director No. 1 race with 149 votes. Sarah Ramsden received 86 votes.

Pend Oreille County voters also rejected Senate Joint Resolution 8201, which proposed amending the state constitution to allow the state to invest money in the stock market to grow a long-term care program, with 2,411 rejecting and 1,394 approving.

One voter had voted, but signed the incorrect ballot, his wife’s. She did not correct the ballot, so the vote was not counted.