Serving Franklin County, WA
Serving Franklin County, WA
Incumbent grows lead since primary election
Franklin County Commissioner Clint Didier, R-Eltopia
ELTOPIA – Incumbent Clint Didier has a comfortable lead in his re-election bid to the county commission.
Didier, of Eltopia, was seeking re-election to the District No. 3 commission seat. He was being challenged by a former county commissioner, Rick Miller of Pasco.
At the end of the first day of counting in the Nov. 8 general election, Didier had a lead of more 1,500 votes.
Early returns show Didier with 8,546 votes (55.08%). Miller was a distant second with 6,877 votes (44.32%).
The tally included 1,270 under votes and 93 write-ins.
Didier appears to have expanded his lead over Miller since the Aug. 2 primary election, the last time the two faced off over the seat.
In the primary, Didier had 2,880 votes (54.06%) and Miller had 2,399 votes (45.03%). Only those who lived in the district were allowed to vote.
In the general election, all Franklin County residents were eligible to vote, which appears to have benefitted Didier.
According to election officials, 16,788 votes have been counted in Franklin County out of the 42,831 mailed to registered voters in 121 precincts.
The second round of ballot counting is set for 5 p.m. today, Nov. 9.
Late-arriving ballots with a postmark on or before Nov. 8 will be counted at different times over the next two weeks.
The unofficial final tally will be certified Nov. 29.
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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