Incumbent Chehalis School District Director District 5 candidate J. Vander Stoep was leading his three challengers by a landslide in preliminary counts for the primary election released Tuesday night, with challenger Julie Balmelli-Powe tentatively in the second-place slot.
The top two vote-getters in the four-candidate primary race will advance to the November general election.
As of 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Vander Stoep, who is seeking his second term on the board, held 62.1% of the vote, with 1,388 ballots to his name. Challenger Balmelli-Powe,a third-generation farmer and W.F. West graduate, had 16.02% of the vote, or 358 votes, as of the preliminary count. She was just ahead of community member and parent Matt Fagerness’ 14.9%, or 333 votes.
Challenger Anthony Mixer was firmly in last place on election night, with 134 ballots, or just 6% of the vote.
A total of 22 votes had gone to a write-in candidate as of election night.
In the first round of ballots counted, just 21.82% of Lewis County’s 35,140 registered voters had turned out. Over 7,600 ballots had been counted throughout the county, and the next set of results was slated to come in at 4 p.m. on Aug. 2.
The election will be certified on Aug. 15 at the Lewis County Courthouse.
For questions about the election, visit the Lewis County Auditor’s Office at 351 NW North St., Chehalis or call 360-740-1164.
Full preliminary results from the Lewis County primary election can be found here: https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20230801/lewis/.
