As of Monday night, Kent had 47,623 votes, or 22.79 percent of the 208,993 votes cast to date. Herrera Beutler had 46,663 votes, or 22.33 percent of the total. Herrera Beutler led on election night, but Kent steadily gained ground as more ballots were counted. By Friday night, Kent had nearly closed the gap between himself and the incumbent, leaving 257 votes between the two candidates for the position. “We will watch the vote count for one more day before making any statements,” said Craig Wheeler, Herrera Beutler’s campaign manager. Both Republican candidates are vying for second place on the November ballot to face Democrat Marie Glazenkamp Perez of Skamania. He showed an early lead over the main players and currently has 30.97 percent of the vote. Perez is the most popular candidate in Clark, Pacific and Skamania counties. Herrera Beutler wins by 303 votes in Cowlitz County, previously held by Perez on Thursday. Kent leads Thurston and Lewis counties. About 10,000 votes remain to be counted in Clark County, the district’s most populous county. Voter turnout jumped to 40.79% as of Monday afternoon. Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said the remaining ballots should be counted by Tuesday. Clark County expects to provide an update at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, followed by Thurston County at 5 p.m. Cowlitz County will update the next at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Lewis County’s next ballot count will be Aug. 15, and Skamania, Pacific and Wahkiakum counties are set for Aug. 16, when election results will be certified. The results are subject to a mechanical recount if the difference is less than 2,000 votes and less than 0.5 percent of the total votes for both candidates. A manual recount will take place if the difference is less than 150 votes and less than a quarter of a percentage of the total votes.
