After preliminary results for a number of local elections were released Tuesday evening, many local candidates celebrated victory while others in close races remained more reserved as they waited for each and every ballot to be counted.
The latest ballot count update shows Ray Chapman-Wilson pulling ahead of his opponent Leah Sisemore in the race for the Centralia City Council District 2 seat. The update also shows Ally Pickard maintaining her lead over incumbent Julie Shaffley by more than 100 votes in the race for Port of Centralia’s District 2 commissioner seat and Brian Watson — an employee of The Chronicle — extending his lead over opponent Luis Manzo from just two votes to 15 in the race for Napavine City Council Position 1.
According to the most recent update from Lewis County Auditor's Office Elections Department published Thursday just after 11:30 a.m., 20,247 ballots have been counted for the Nov. 4 general election, representing a 34.36% voter turnout. A total of 14,979 ballots had been counted as part of the preliminary results published Tuesday evening.
While the update provides more clarity to the ballot counts, the results are still unofficial and it will take time before the votes are confirmed. According to the most recent update, just one ballot remained to be counted. The next update from the Elections Department is scheduled for later this month, Nov. 24. The election will be certified on Nov. 25.
See the full results from the election at https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20251104/lewis/.
Port of Centralia
Candidates for the Port of Centralia Commissioner Seat 2 seemed split on whether to call their own election during the Port of Centralia Board of Commissioners business meeting on Wednesday afternoon. During the meeting, Shaffley congratulated Pickard on winning the race while Pickard declined to comment.
"I just want to congratulate Ally for winning the election yesterday,” Shaffley said. “And I want to congratulate everybody here for coming and being here and supporting the board."
Before the recent ballot count update, Pickard held a lead of 133 votes, pulling in 51.62% of the ballots cast in the race. After the update, that lead grew to 148 votes. Her victory appears to have been solidified.
According to the update, Pickard received 2,448 votes supporting her bid to become a Port of Centralia commissioner while Shaffley received 2,300 in her effort to defend her seat.
Centralia City Council
In one of the closest races in the county, Chapman-Wilson has taken the lead in a race that has been a nailbiter from start to finish.
Chapman-Wilson was losing to his opponent, Sisemore, by seven votes Tuesday evening after the first round of results were published. After a Wednesday evening update, Chapman-Wilson took the lead by one vote and, as of Thursday morning, he had extended it to a still slim 12-vote lead.
So far, 333 ballots have been cast in support of Chapman-Wilson while 321 have been counted in support of Sisemore.
Napavine City Council
In another close race in the county, Watson has now extended what remained an extremely slim lead over his opponent, Manzo, through the Wednesday evening ballot count update. Watson took a two-vote lead after the preliminary results were released Tuesday evening, and that lead stayed at two votes through a Wednesday evening update as both candidates added nine votes.
The most recent update, however, shows Watson's lead growing, even if only a little. He now leads his opponent by 15 votes.
As things stand after the Thursday morning ballot count update, Watson pulled in 205 votes, giving him 51.51% of the vote, while Manzo brought in 190 votes, giving him 47.74% of the vote. Three ballots in the race have been counted as write-ins.
Lewis County Fire Protection District 5
The late Tom Crowson, whose name has remained on political ballots despite his untimely death ahead of the primary election in August, took the lead early on in the voting for Fire Protection District 5 commissioner.
His opponent, Rick LeBoeuf, however took the lead by just three votes in the most recent vote count update from Lewis County. Crowson led by 31 votes in the preliminary results released Tuesday evening. That lead dwindled to just nine in a vote count update Wednesday night before disappearing altogether in the Thursday morning update.
LeBoeuf is now poised to take the position with 841 votes and 49.3% of the total vote over Crowson's 838 votes representing 49.12% of the ballots. There were 27 ballots marked as write-in votes representing 1.58% of the ballots cast in the local election that will not be claimed by either of the two primary candidates.
Mossyrock School District
While not widereaching, a Mossyrock School District Board of Directors election remained one of the closer races in the county through to the end.
Benjamin William Callies started with a lead of just over 60 votes over his opponent, Peggy Cuddie. He has now expanded his lead to 92 votes and will claim the board seat. A total of 578 ballots were cast in support of Callies. There were 486 ballots cast in support of Cuddie.
Winlock School District
Candidate for a seat on the Winlock School District Board of Directors Taylor Myers is the winner of another close race in a small district. Myers began with a lead of just over 80 votes over his opponent, Jarryd Forler. That lead has since shrunk by just a few votes, but Myers held onto the lead nonetheless.
Myers currently holds 647 votes in favor of his bid to become a member of the local school board. Forler received 570 votes.
