Grant County officials certify Aug. 4 primary election tallies
Overall voter turnout was 32.9%.
EPHRATA — Grant County officials on Tuesday certified results from the Aug. 4 primary that advance the top two candidates in five contested courthouse races to the November general election.
The close race continued between Sheriff Joey Kriete and challenger Darrik Gregg, with Gregg holding a 105-vote advantage, 5,839 to 5,734, over the incumbent in the final primary count. Kriete is seeking a second four-year term in office. Both men are from Moses Lake. A third candidate, Josh Sainsbury of Ephrata, finished with 4,518 votes and was eliminated from contention.
In the judicial race for Position 3 on the Grant County Superior Court bench, private practice attorney Ken Chadwick led the primary polling with 5,533 votes. Trevor Bevier, a deputy county prosecuting attorney, also moves on to the general election. Bevier edged interim Judge Jennifer Richardson by 230 votes, 4,741 – 4,511. Richardson had been appointed in January by Gov. Bob Ferguson. The position carries a two-year unexpired term.
In the race for county auditor, interim appointee Shannon Falstad of Ephrata maintained a solid lead in final primary balloting, outpolling runner-up Darci Homesley of Moses Lake, 7,188 – 4,283. Both advance to the Nov. 3 election. A third candidate, Andrew Koeppen of Moses Lake, garnered 3,905 votes.
Kelly Raap of rural Ephrata and Shannon Durfee of Quincy will face a countywide vote in November for Grant County commissioner representing District 3 — the southwest part of the county. Primary voting was limited to residents within the district, with Raap collecting 1,377 votes, followed by Durfee with 1,233. Two other candidates, Janice Flynn of Royal City (805 votes) and Seth Weeks of Mattawa (790) were eliminated.
On the ballot, Clayton Johnson of Ephrata appeared as a lone, nonpartisan candidate for county assessor and picked up 12,282 votes. But an official write-in candidate, Republican Anson Bartrand of Mattawa, also received enough votes — an estimated 3% — to also remain in the running in November.
Regionally, the primary’s Election Night leaders for the 4th Congressional District and state 13th Legislative District (Position 2) continued to hold their advantages in the final count.
For Congress, Yakima County commissioner Amanda McKinney, a Republican, led the 11-candidate field with 34.8% of the vote across the sprawling district’s eight-county region in central Washington. In the general election, she will face Democrat John Duresky of West Richland, who followed at 29.9%. Republican Jerrod Sessler of Prosser was a distant third at 14.6%. McKinney and Duresky are looking to succeed incumbent U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, who chose not to seek re-election to another two-year term.
In the 13th Legislative District, which includes most of Grant County, Deanna Martinez of Moses Lake led a three-candidate field with 37.2% of the vote, followed by Joshua Thompson of Ellensburg at 34.2%. Don Myers of Moses Lake finished third at 26.8%. All three are Republicans. Martinez and Thompson are vying for the House seat currently held by Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, who is running unopposed for the state Senate.
Overall voter turnout in Grant County for the primary was 32.9% — a total of 17,428 ballots were cast by the county’s 53,042 registered voters.
The Secretary of State's office will finalize Washington's overall primary certification on Aug. 21.
