PORT ANGELES — Sarah Methner said she is ready to go to work after she won 64.07 percent, or 3,277, of the votes for the four-year Port Angeles School District No. 1 position, to her opponent Debby Fuson’s 35.93 percent, or 1,838 votes, in the initial round of counting Tuesday.

“I’m really grateful to the people of Port Angeles for voting for me,” Methner said. “I’m ready to get to work now.”

Fuson congratulated her opponent and said she had learned a lot.

“It was my first step into the political arena,” she said.

She said she felt she needed to have gotten out more during the campaign but having a full time job hindered her ability to do so.

“Congratulations to Sarah on a good race,” she said. “I wish her the best.”

In Port Angeles, 3,847 of the 11,029 voters had returned ballots by Tuesday, for a 34.88 percent return rate, said Patty Rosand, Clallam County auditor.

Methner said she was glad she didn’t run unopposed, as it gave her four children a chance to see the democratic process in action.

In the next few months, she expects she will be “going to a lot of meetings, doing lots of reading and talking to a lot of people,” she said.

Plans for first year

In her first year, she is looking forward to considering the drop-out rate, ways to upgrade technology in the district and prompt more community members to be involved in school issues.

Methner, 39, has a bachelor’s degree in political science and an initial teaching certificate. She is a personal trainer at the Clallam County YMCA. She has never held public office.

Fusion said she may look at other races in the future but for now plans on continuing to be involved in Port Angeles schools in whatever way she can.

Countywide, 16,610 ballots, or about 36 percent of all the 45,739 ballots mailed for the general election, were counted Tuesday.

The 4,500-plus additional ballots collected Tuesday — which will be counted Friday — put the estimated number of voters who participated in Clallam County’s general election to at least 20,660 and voter turnout to more than 46 percent.