Write-In Candidate Moves Forward in Yakima County

A write-in candidate in Yakima County will advance to the November general election. According to Yakima County Auditor Charles Ross Angie Girard, a democrat in the Yakima County Commissioner District 1 race was able to gain support in more than 1% of the ballots returned to qualify to move forward to November.
The incumbent Amanda McKinney was able to gain 83% of the vote in the primary election.

Girard has filed legal action against commissioners

Girard made news last month after filing a lawsuit against McKinney and Commissioner LaDon Linde charging violations of the Open Public Meetings Act.
Ross says they will continue to count ballots Wednesday from the primary election. He says they have about 10,000 ballots to count. They'll count ballots everyday until the election is certified later this month. When all the counting is finished he expects a 30% turnout. Ross says "historically elections like this have very low turnout, especially even year non-presidential. I believe the atypical high return in the 2020 cycle was caused by the political ferocity that was generated after Trump took office."

Examples of past voter turnout

2020- 53,496 = 44.23%

2018- 39,844 = 34.70%

2016- 30,390 = 27.63%

2014- 34,115 =  31.91%

2012- 33,391 = 32.47%

People vote when they are motivated

Ross says they've also seen a big increase in registered voters over those same years, 2012 had 102,835 registered voters compared to the current 127,668. Ross says they believe turnout is driven most by ballot measures, candidates and level of concern by the voting public. He says only presidential election cycles produce high returns like in 2020 when nearly 100,000 people voted in Yakima County.