King County’s primary election has been certified, and the challengers for Enumclaw School District No. 4 board seat are moving on to general election.
Coming away with a clear lead was Ben Stouffer, who garnered just about 46% of the 6,130 votes sent into the county.
The tighter race to represent Black Diamond on the school board was between incumbent Lori Metschan and Tonya Pettit. On election night, Pettit led by 47 votes, but as of Aug. 15, that lead shrunk to just 13 votes.
Forty-seven voters opted to write-in candidates.
Because less than 2,000 votes are separating the candidates (and there is less than 0.5% difference as well) the race automatically receives a machine recount; results will be certified Aug. 22. It was noted by King County elections that machine recounts rarely impact the final results of elections.
Additionally, while the Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy passed handily across King County with more than 71% of the vote, the Plateau overall rejected the measure — though different parts of Enumclaw and Black Diamond supported Prop. 1 more than others.
As is becoming tradition, the Courier-Herald has analyzed the voting precincts in Enumclaw, Black Diamond, and unincorporated areas to see which areas voted for which candidate and what propositions.
SCHOOL DISTRICT
Hands-down, Stouffer is now the clear favorite to win the ESD District 4 seat, representing the Black Diamond area, and garnered the majority of votes both inside the Enumclaw and Black Diamond city limits and in unincorporated areas.
Metschan, however, outpaced Pettit in both Black Diamond proper and the city’s surrounding unincorporated areas, leading especially in the city with 265 votes against Pettit’s 171.
However, that was not enough to overtake Pettit’s lead in Enumclaw and its nearby precincts. Support around Enumclaw was especially important in this race, where Pettit garnered about 594 votes compared to Metschan’s 479.
VETERANS, SENIORS AND HUMAN SERVICES LEVY
Across the Plateau, voters narrowly rejected renewing King County’s Veterans, Seniors and Human Services levy by nearly 53%.
Support for the levy was higher within the city limits of Enumcalw, where 55% of voters approved of the levy, and Black Diamond, where 56% of voters supported the measure.
But that ended up being outweighed by unincorporated King County voters; unincorporated voters around Enumclaw rejected the measure by about 59%, and those near Black Diamond by about 56%.
THE GENERAL ELECTION
With the primary election behind us, Enumclaw and Black Diamond have several general elections to look forward to.
All residents will be voting on three ESD races.
Beyond the Director 4 race, District 1 Director Jennifer Kent is not running for re-election, so her seat contest will be between Scott Mason and Jimmy Stewart; District 3 incumbent Tyson Gamblin is being challenged by Vivian Tillman-Cadematori.
Enumclaw residents have one city council races to consider as well, since Councilmember Beau Chevassus declined to run
Black Diamond has two contested elections for council: Position No. 3, currently held by Therron Smith, is being challenged by Amina Abdalla, and Position No. 6, held by Nathan Jones, is being challenged by Pravat Sripranaratanakul.
Councilmembers Tamie Boxx-Deady (Position No. 1), Bradd Douglass (Position No. 2), Kristiana de Leon (Position No. 5), and Debbie Page (Position No. 7) are running unopposed.
