Preliminary elections results show front-runners in La Center council and school board races

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The preliminary results for the August 2021 primary election are in, but one race in La Center remains too close to call with only a few hundred ballots left to count.

As of Aug. 6, Clark County Elections only had an estimated 250 ballots left to process. The most competitive races were in La Center, as 13 candidates filed for three city council seats.

La Center races  prove close contests

The frontrunners for the top-two primary contest are evident for two out of three La Center City Council races, though the most competitive race has a difference of two votes for second place as of Aug. 6.

For position 1 on the council, Justin Keeler led with 296 votes, while Melissa Fox had 272. Both will advance to the general election. Of the other challengers, Myrna Leija took 252 votes, Ron Ostrander had 125 and Craig Whited received 60.

Following the results, Keeler said the numbers are “validating.” Keeler, the Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries outreach and partnerships director, said the results make him “excited and hopeful.”

“It looks like it’s becoming much closer to becoming a reality,” Keeler said.

He pointed to his educational background in public administration as being an asset should he be elected to council.

“I like to think that I have a good understanding of how local governments work in Washington state and that’s primarily why I’m running,” Keeler said.

For council position 2, challenger KC Kasberg led the pack with 399 votes, though incumbent Dennis Hill held on in second place with 350 votes as of Aug. 6. David Nelson took 147 votes and Kimberlee Elbon had 94.

Kasberg, a Clark County Sheriff’s Office commander, said he is happy to see the voters put their support behind him.

“I had hoped I was going to do well and I was working pretty hard to get to that point,” Kasberg said. “But I don’t know that it’s necessarily just about me. I think the people of La Center want to see a change.”

“An incumbent is always difficult to go up against,” Kasberg said.

He said Hill’s recent appointment in December was a potential factor to his own success. The two will face off in November.

Councilor Randy Williams had the most success as of Aug. 6’s count among the La Center incumbents, as he led in first place with 358 votes to retain his position 3 seat. Who his challenger will be in the November contest will likely head for a recount, as challenger Sean Boyle’s 299 votes are within the threshold of fellow candidate Janice Fowler’s 297, according to information from the Municipal Research and Services Center. In fourth place, Palmer Davis received 47 votes.

This year was the first time Williams faced challengers for his seat. He ran uncontested in 2013 and 2017, county elections data shows. Given the competition, he ramped up his campaign efforts, putting out signs for the first time as part of his outreach.

“Signs don’t win the contest, it’s contact,” Williams said.

He felt his 17 years of public service, much of which has been in La Center, led to him securing his portion of the vote.

Yacolt’s largely moot primary for town council’s position 3 spot shows the now-incumbent, Joshua Beck, in the lead with 163 votes, while challenger Ronald Homola — who was appointed to council’s position 4 seat in July — came in second with 68 votes. Rhonda Rowe-Tice came in third with 23 votes.



Homola’s appointed position is not up for election until 2023. Beck, who also was appointed last month, is likely to hold his seat this year.

School board races  show clear front-runners

Battle Ground Public School’s District 1 has incumbent Mary Snitily in the lead with 5,307 votes as of Aug. 6, or more than 43 percent. Challenger Chloe Seppala moves on to the November election with 3,895 votes, or more than 31 percent, while Devin Scroggins was in third place with 2,389 votes or about 19 percent, and John Siemssen Sr. had 647 votes, or about 5 percent.

Snitily, a former educator, said she is looking forward to a “hopefully little more normal school year” in the fall. She said the competition she faced in the primary is a good thing.

“That means lots of people are interested in what’s happening in the community and happening with children in the community,” Snitily said.

She said continuing to stay engaged with the community and answering their questions would be key to her first election for the seat.

“Having already been on the board since March, I’d like to continue the work that we’re doing,” Snitily said, adding she feels she’s settled in the position in the subsequent months.

The district 1 seat for the Hockinson School District saw challenger Teresa VanNatta in the lead with 1,142 votes, more than 52 percent of the total as of Aug. 6. Incumbent Tim Hawkins will move on after taking 557 votes, or about 25 percent, while challenger Bill Eling took 492 votes, or more than 22 percent.

In an email, VanNatta said she is “overwhelmed by the kindness, support and encouragement by community members, family and friends” she has seen in her campaign.

“It’s clear to me that Hockinson wants a woman on the current all male board,” VanNatta, who is  an educator in the Evergreen School District, said. She added that’s a surprise to many she’s talked to during the campaign. She said her experience actually working in public education also likely added to the amount of voter support she’s received.

“It would be an honor for me to serve on the Hockinson School Board and have this chance to give back to a very special community,” VanNatta said.

EMS levy has enough voters to pass

A ballot measure to pass a one-year excess levy to fund North Country EMS has strong support behind it and managed to pass the needed total votes to be approved. As of the Aug. 6 count, the levy had 231 votes, or about 89 percent, approving the measure in Yacolt, and 2,626 votes, or about 80 percent in approval, for the unincorporated parts of Clark County the district serves.

In order to pass the measure needed to have 2,085 “yes” votes in the unincorporated area and 187 in Yacolt by the time all ballots are counted. It also needed to pass 206 “yes” votes in the portions of Cowlitz County the district serves, which it did, receiving 277 votes, more than 73 percent approval.

“We’re very thankful that enough people cast their vote,” said North Country EMS Chief Shaun Ford, adding ballot measures after high-turnout general elections always carry a level of uncertainty as to whether enough voters will participate to pass the threshold. It wasn’t until the count on Thursday that all three voting areas surpassed the number of votes needed, as Yacolt hit the number of votes for approval.

“It’s definitely a relief. We were sweating there for a while,” Ford said.

The wait wasn’t unexpected, however, because ballot measures outside of the general election typically don’t become definitive until subsequent counts.

With the levy’s approval, property owners will see a tax of $1.10 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2022. Ford perviously said the revenues from the tax fund about a quarter of the district’s operations.

As of the Aug. 6 total, 72,819 ballots had been counted, Clark County Elections estimated. In 2019, the municipal primary had a final voter turnout of 24.6 percent in the county by certification. Voter turnout this year is nearly the same with 24.4 percent as of Aug. 6.