PORT ANGELES — With only a handful of ballots from Port Angeles left to count, Larry Little, Patrick Downie and Brooke Nelson have claimed victory in their City Council races, while Max Mania and Edna Petersen say that their contest remains too close to call.

The opponents of Little and Downie have conceded defeat, while Deputy Mayor Betsy Wharton, who is trailing Nelson by 119 votes, said that she will wait until all of the ballots have been counted before calling their race.

Friday’s second count of ballots from Tuesday’s general election found that Mania, a grocery clerk and writer, has inched into the lead against Petersen, a former City Council member, who served as an appointee, and owner of Necessities and Temptations gift shop.

Mania has 2,706 votes, or 50.29 percent, to Petersen’s 2,675 votes, or 49.71 percent.

Mania, 41, said he was “very pleased” to surpass Petersen in the latest account, but with only a 31-vote lead, he was not ready to declare victory.

“Obviously it is still an undecided race,” Mania said.

“I know I haven’t won yet, but I’m very positive and excited about these results.”

Petersen, 69, also said the race remains too close to call.

“We’re just in an other inning of a very tight ball game,” she said.

The winner of that race will replace City Council member Larry Williams, who has served on the council since 1998 and is up against a term limit this year.

In other Port Angeles council races, Downie had a 373-vote lead and Little was leading by 338 votes Friday.

The winners in the City Council races will join the council in January.

Council members serve four-year terms. After their third straight term, they have to wait two years before running again.

Ballots left to count

A total of 5,892 Port Angeles ballots, out of 11,028 mailed, have been counted in the election. That brings voter turnout in Port Angeles to 53.5 percent.

Countywide, voter turnout is 55.8 percent, with 25,550 ballots returned out of 45,739 ballots returned.

Clallam County Auditor Patty Rosand said that there were 19 Port Angeles ballots that weren’t counted Friday.

But there are also 222 other ballots that election officials don’t know what precincts they are from and have not been counted.

They include the 30 which were returned Friday and 192 other ballots that came with missing or incorrect signatures.

The ballots with incorrect or missing signatures won’t be counted unless the voters who submitted them fix the errors by Nov. 23.

Port Angeles makes up about a quarter of the county’s electorate.

From now until the general election is certified Nov. 24, only about 100 more ballots are expected to be returned to the county Auditor’s Office in the all-mail election, said Shoona Radon, county election supervisor.

Those would all come from Clallam County voters who are in the military or who cast their ballots from outside the state.

Nelson-Wharton

Wharton, 49, said she was not willing to claim defeat because of the possibly of additional ballots and a machine recount if the final vote difference is less than 0.5 percent.

“I’m just going to see it through until it is certified,” she said.

Wharton later added in an e-mail: “But whichever way it goes, I will continue to work towards a positive future in this community. My role may change, but my commitment to working for the community will not change.”

Her challenger, Nelson, 37, a Port Angeles real estate agent, remained unavailable for comment.

Nelson’s campaign spokesman, Dylan Honnold, said that she is not prepared to speak publicly because she is grieving over the loss of her six-year-old son, Theodin Nelson, and mother, Mary Wyman, in a car wreck last month.

Speaking on her behalf, Honnold said: “We are very pleased with the results and it looks like there’s enough difference that we are assuming Brooke will be sitting on the council in January.”

Honnold said he doesn’t think that the loss of her son and mother had an effect on the race.

He said voters have chosen Nelson because of her stance on local issues.

“It was a campaign of two very distinct approaches to how to address the concerns of the community,” he said.

“A balance between the community concerns regarding sustainability and the realities of our economic situation and addressing both of those issues as best one can in policy development.”

Wharton said the tragedy did affect the race since she ceased campaigning for over a week “out of respect” and because three joint-public appearances with Nelson were cancelled.

“Well, just from my campaign’s point of view,” she said, “it happened at the moment where we were all out in the street doing a massive door belling effort and we stopped … we put a hault to it.

“We did not place newspaper ads at that time,” she added.

Blevins congratulates Little

Blevins, 28, a technical sales representative and installation specialist for Hi-Tech Electronics, congratulated his opponent, Little, on Friday.

“Well, it is always a little disappointing,” he said of the loss, “but I think the campaign was a great experience.”

“It was good to go out and get some first-hand feedback from the community while out door belling.”

As of Friday’s count, Blevins received 2,384 votes, or 46.69 percent.

Little has 2,722 votes, or 53.31 percent.

Blevins attributed his defeat to Little’s level of name recognition.

Little, 55, is a retired general practice dentist and currently is the executive director of Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics and the Port Angeles Marathon Association.

“I’m pleased that the citizens of Port Angeles have supported me to this extent,” Little said.

He congratulated each of the candidates who ran for office.

“It’s tough putting yourself out there in front of the public,” Little said.

Little will replace Mayor Gary Braun, who has served on the council since 2002 and previously from 1992-1999. Braun chose to not run for re-election this year.

Downie pleased

Downie, 67, the program coordinator for Catholic Community Services/Volunteer Services and a former city Planning Commission chairman, was at first hesitant to claim victory even with a 373-vote lead, the largest out of any of the council races.

Downie said he was notified of the results by his opponent, Harry Bell, who called to congratulate him.

“I thought that was way cool,” Downie said.

Downie was leading Bell, chief forester for Green Crow, as of Friday with 373 votes.

He has received 2,590 votes, or 53.88 percent.

Bell, 64, has 2,217 votes, or 46.12 percent.

“I’m very pleased to win the election,” he said, after being notified about the few Port Angeles ballots left to count.

“It has been a pleasure to participate in a cordial and respectful campaign with Harry.

“I have gained great respect with him as a person.”

Bell said he may run again for a City Council position, but is at this time, undecided.

Like Blevins, he also attributed Downie’s win to better name recognition.

“I will say that Patrick is going to be a good city councilman,” he added.

Downie will replace former Mayor Karen Rogers, who has served on the council since 2001.

Like Braun, Rogers also chose to not run for re-election.

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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.