Gap widens in favor of second Republican looking to advance in commissioners' race

Two Republicans are still leading in the primary election for the District 2 Kitsap County Commission position, in updated totals released by the Kitsap County Auditor on Wednesday afternoon.

Sean Murphy continues to lead the pack of six candidates with 3,327 votes, making up 26.03% of the vote. The gap between candidates Oran Root and Stacey Smith, which was just 78 votes after Tuesday's initial report, widened just slightly, in Root's favor. Root now has 2,858 votes, or 22.36%, putting him 93 votes ahead of Smith.

The top two candidates in the primary move on to the general election in November, when voters across Kitsap County will weigh in on the candidate to replace Commissioner Charlotte Garrido. Only District 2 votes in the primary.

Results for the three other candidates weren't affected by Wednesday's vote update. Murphy, Root and Smith are still followed by Democrats Jeff Coughlin (2,564, 20.06%) and Matt Macklin (1,135, 8.88%), and “Abe Lincoln Democrat” Paul Nuchims (132, 1.03%).

Unofficially, the auditor's office is reporting a turnout for the primary of approximately 23% of registered voters, according to the totals on its website, or 43,291 ballots cast overall.

No other races changed markedly with the additional votes counted Wednesday. State Sen. Emily Randall now leads in the primary for Sixth District representative to Congress with more than 34% of the vote, a slight increase, while her opponents Drew MacEwan, a Republican, and Hilary Franz, a Democrat, stayed steady at around 30% and 25%, respectively.

In the only other close race in Kitsap, for Kitsap Public Utilities District commissioner District 3, incumbent Heather Pauley maintained a lead, with nearly 50% of the votes. Challengers Rick Tift and John Poppe about split the remaining votes, and Tift still leads by just 83 votes (3,100 to 3,017).

The Kitsap County Auditor plans to release another update on Thursday afternoon, according to its website.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Kitsap County Commissioner primary vote update