Early results are in for Tuesday’s election with about 42.5 percent of the county’s mail-in ballots accounted for so far.

Kittitas County Auditor Jerry Pettit said the numbers reflect previous off-year elections.

“We’re running pretty similar to what they do,” Pettit said.

Pettit said an estimated 1,400 ballots are left to be counted today. An update on ballot numbers is expected to be posted to the county’s Web site sometime Thursday.

“There will be some coming in, and we won’t be sure how many that will be,” Pettit said. “Some in the mail today, and tomorrow and then they will drop off very quickly.”

Elections Supervisor Sue Higginbotham said they are expecting a 50 percent turnout, which would be less than the last off-year election in 2007.

“Two years ago we had a 57 percent turnout and we are not going to get that,” Higginbotham said. “We should jump up to 50 percent by tomorrow.”

For updates on the election results, visit http://www.co.kittitas.wa.us/auditor/results.asp.

O’Brien retains spot in landslide win

Incumbent Obie O’Brien pulled in 84 percent of the votes during Tuesday’s election. His opponent, Larry Nickel, received 16 percent or 304 votes as of 8:13 p.m. Tuesday.

“I like that percentage,” O’Brien said this morning.

O’Brien said he was happy with the voter turn out — especially in an off-year election.

“There didn’t seem to be a lot of of things that people would be fired up about,” O’Brien said. “I’m really glad that people voted, and I’m really glad that they picked me.”

O’Brien will be in his seat for another four years, pending the official election results.

“We’ll see what the future brings,” O’Brien said. “But I know that the city has a lot of things facing it, and a lot of decisions have to be made, and a lot of planning needs to continue where we need to be as the economy starts to recover.”

Huffman leads Cullinane in FD2 bid

Candidates for Kittitas County Fire District 2 commissioner Position 3 — Brian Cullinane and Glenn Huffman — each expressed optimism this morning that they could be the next commissioner, although Huffman currently has a 313-vote lead over Cullinane.

Huffman this morning said he was encouraged by the unofficial returns from Tuesday’s General Election and was optimistic given that the Kittitas County Auditor’s Office expects 1,000 to 1,400 more mail-in ballots to reach the office in the next few days.

Presently, Huffman has 2,483 votes to Cullinane’s 2,170 votes.

As of late Tuesday night, only 33.27 percent of the ballots sent out to voters in the district had been returned to the Auditor’s Office.

“I don’t want to count my chickens, so to speak, before more of the votes are in,” Huffman said. “We should know who is the winner by Thursday or Friday.”

Huffman acknowledged the campaign for the Kittitas Valley Fire and Rescue commissioner Position 3 seat has been controversial, although he said he worked to focus on the issues and on positive plans for the future of the district that takes in Fire District 2 and the city of Ellensburg.

“We didn’t get into personal attacks,” Huffman said.

He expressed appreciation to those who worked on his campaign and for the support of the voters. He said he’s been told that the voting trends in Tuesday night returns usually continue in the ballots that come in soon afterward.

Cullinane this morning said the results as of late Tuesday night were closer than he expected them to be, yet he also was optimistic there would be more votes added to his total. He was thankful for voter support.

“My focus has always been on the community,” Cullinane said this morning. “No matter what the final votes are, we’ll all go back to business, and the fire district will move forward.”

If Huffman wins in the final count, Cullinane said he will continue serving the community in several of his public outreach efforts.

“There are needs in the community to be addressed, and I will continue to offer my services,” Cullinane said.

He said he was disappointed that some in the community made the commissioner Position 3 race so controversial, and he believes he ran a positive campaign looking more on the issues and steered clear of getting into personal attacks.

Cullinane said early in his campaign he decided not to receive support from outside the community in an effort to make sure it didn’t appear he was beholding to those outside the community.

He said he believes Huffman made a poor choice to accept campaign support outside the community.