Sen. Lynda Wilson appears to have retained her seat in Clark County’s 17th Legislative District, according to a second batch of election returns released Wednesday evening. The Vicki Kraft-Tanisha Harris House race in that district and a contest for Clark County Council District 3, both of which were already narrow, have tightened further.
Wilson, a Republican, held 52.64 percent of the votes in a race against Democrat Daniel Smith after the Clark County Elections Office released its second batch of results. Her lead expanded from 51.95 percent Tuesday night.
Wilson told The Columbian on Tuesday night that she was “feeling pretty confident” that her lead would only grow in the next few days, based on results from previous years.
“I look forward to continuing to serve you as your senator and your voice in Olympia,” Wilson wrote in a Facebook post late Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, Harris’ lead fell to 50.62 percent Wednesday from 51.24 percent on Tuesday night. She leads by 869 votes out of nearly 70,000 cast. The Democrat is challenging Republican Rep. Vicki Kraft for the district that includes east Vancouver, the southern part of Battle Ground and unincorporated areas of Clark County.
In county council District 3, Democrat Jesse James had accumulated 50.22 percent of the vote as of Wednesday’s total. His lead over Republican Karen Bowerman fell to 216 votes from 1,110 on Tuesday night.
No other local races appeared to be left undecided on Wednesday.
Election results are expected to be updated again at 5 p.m. Thursday.
So far, the county Elections Office has counted 72.95 percent of all ballots that were sent to voters. An estimated 40,000 ballots have been received but not yet counted.
Turnout stood at 85.20 percent in the county as of Wednesday, although the number will continue to grow this week as ballots postmarked by Tuesday trickle into the elections office.
