By Corey Morris

Vidette Editor

Grays Harbor County District 1 Commissioner Wes Cormier is leading his race for re-election following preliminary results announced on election night, Nov. 8.

Cormier, a first-term Republican, had 54.99 percent.

He was being challenged by Democrat Jamie Nichols. Nichols earned 44.85 percent.

Cormier and Nichols were separated by 1,917 votes, with Cormier receiving 10,398 votes and Nichols receiving 8,481.

“I feel pretty good about the lead and the results,” Cormier said on election night. “I ran on my record and it’s a testament to what I’ve done over the past four years.”

District 1 includes all of East County and some of Central Park.

During the primary election, Cormier and Nichols both edged out Democrat Al Smith.

Grays Harbor County saw more than 50 percent of ballots tallied during the preliminary count, indicating the general election was seeing a high voter turnout.

“Such a high turnout, with all these people casting additional ballots, I didn’t know how it was going to turn out,” Cormier said. “I’m relieved.”

Grays Harbor County Auditor Vern Spatz said he is anticipating some 29,000 ballots this election, meaning roughly another 9,000 ballots could be counted before the numbers are official.

The election will be certified by each county on Nov. 29.

This season, Grays Harbor County Elections Office received an average of 2,000-3,000 ballots each day, Spatz said.

“We have a lot we didn’t get processed today because they’re coming in so fast,” Spatz said. “We’re thrilled to have this much turnout.”