Anthony Ahrens, center, hugs Carla Shannon, right, and James Shannon, left, as it was announced that Shannon leads Tinney in the County Clerk’s race Nov. 7 at the Lewis County Courthouse in Chehalis. Subsequent counts put Tinney ahead. His election was confirmed by a recount Tuesday.
While Carla Shannon had a 255-vote lead over incumbent Scott Tinney after the first ballots were counted in the Lewis County Clerk race Tuesday night, late voters have helped Tinney make up the difference with room to spare.
“It feels great,” Tinney told The Chronicle Thursday afternoon. “I’m feeling a lot better now than I was the other night.”
By Wednesday, Tinney narrowed Shannon’s lead, and was just 74 votes behind his opponent.
The latest count released Thursday afternoon by the Lewis County Auditor’s Office shows Tinney pulling ahead of Shannon by 23 votes, with 50.08 percent of the vote to Shannon’s 49.92 percent.
“I was fairly confident that trend would continue,” he said, noting that his campaign website saw a lot of traffic right before election day. “I think there were a lot of people who waited until the very end to vote (and) spent a little more time and made an educated decision.”
Carla Shannon did not immediately return a request for comment.
Tinney had 7,270 votes Thursday afternoon to Shannon’s 7,247.
The next ballot count is due out on Nov. 27 and the election is scheduled to be certified the following day.
According to the Washington Office of the Secretary of State, mandatory recounts for non-statewide races are called for in two cases.
A machine recount is required when the difference between the top two candidates is less than 2,000 votes and less than half of 1 percent of the total number of votes case for both.
A manual recount is required when the difference between the top two candidates is less than 150 votes and also less than a quarter of 1 percent of total votes cast.
With a 23-vote difference between the candidates and 14,517 total votes cast for both, the race meets the criteria for a manual recount unless enough new votes are counted in the next two weeks.
“I don’t know, there could be a few more votes straggling in,” Tinney said.
Tinney narrowly led in the primary with 37.89 percent of the vote to Shannon’s 36.05 percent. Third candidate Linda Williams took 26.6 percent of the primary vote.
Tinney has served as Lewis County Clerk since he was appointed to the position by the Board of Lewis County Commissioners in November 2016 after former clerk Kathy Brack retired before the end of her term.
He is a long-time Lewis County resident but has spent much of his career working in Thurston County. He worked in the Clerk’s Office there for 24 years.
All of the current Lewis County Clerk’s Office employees, barring Shannon, have endorsed Tinney on several occasions.
A committee of Lewis County Republicans picked Shannon as their top choice to replace retiring clerk Brack last year; however, Tinney was the committee’s third choice, and was ultimately appointed to the position by the county commissioners.
Shannon was also was endorsed by Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza, Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer and retired county clerk Kathy Brack.
