Trailing by 8 1/2 points in the first vote tally on Election Night, Bainbridge council candidate Pegeen Mulhern was holding out hope that things might turn around in her race against Ron Peltier for the at-large District 1 seat on the council.
But not much.
“We still have a few more votes to count,” Mulhern said. “We haven’t given up hope yet.”
The vote count, however, was going Peltier’s way in the first tally on Nov. 3.
Peltier was ahead with 54 percent of the vote, while Mulhern had 45 percent.
The vote count was 2,785 votes for Peltier, and 2,348 for Mulhern, a difference of 437 votes.
“I wish they looked different,” Mulhern said of the early returns.
Both Mulhern and Peltier were taking their first shot at elected office in a race that pitted Mulhern, a maritime business attorney, against Peltier, a carpenter.
“I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to campaign and I hoped I would be able to break into politics, but I guess it’s a tighter knot than I imagined,” Mulhern said. “I guess I’ll have to give back to Bainbridge in some different ways.”
“I’m happy to congratulate Ron and I wish him the best as he works to make the changes he talked about in the campaign,” Mulhern added.
Peltier was at an election party on the south end and did not return calls to the Review on Election Night. But in a statement provided to the press Tuesday night, Peltier thanked his supporters and repeated the issues he pressed in his campaign; stewardship, fiscal responsibility and good governance.
“I really appreciate the community support I received during my campaign. Sometimes candidates make a point of not clearly explaining what they stand for but I took the opposite approach,” Peltier said in the statement.
“It’s very encouraging to me that my approach resonated in the community. You know who I am, what I stand for, and you elected me. Thank you,” he said.
The Kitsap County Elections Division will announce its next vote tally by 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Election workers estimate that roughly 20,000 ballots from across the county will be counted.
