Mielke increases lead over Brokaw

Republican Tom Mielke’s wire-thin lead in the Clark County commissioner race is thickening.

He’s now ahead of Democrat Pam Brokaw by 116 votes, with an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 ballots left to count.

Almost 167,000 votes were cast. A manual recount will be required if the final margin is less than 150 votes; a machine recount will be done if it’s less than about 830 votes.

“Our target date to start any necessary recount would be Monday, Dec. 1,” county elections supervisor Tim Likness wrote in an e-mail Monday.

That’d be after initial election results are certified.

Mielke and Brokaw are vying to replace retiring Commissioner Betty Sue Morris. The outcome will determine which party has a majority on the three-member board, which controls development patterns outside the cities as well as services such as the county jail and public health office.

Mielke, a former state legislator who lives northwest of Battle Ground, won 52 percent of the ballots counted over the weekend.

If Likness’s projection of the number of outstanding ballots is right, Brokaw would need to take at least 54 percent of those yet to be counted to lead.

Those ballots include dozens that might come in from overseas or military voters, as well as more than 1,000 with missing or mismatched signatures or otherwise invalid envelopes.

Voters whose signatures are missing or don’t match their registration cards will be contacted by the elections office to verify their identity.

Whenever new totals are released, The Columbian will publish them in a box similar to the one on Page A1 today.

Michael Andersen: 360-735-4508 or michael.andersen@columbian.com.