Candidates challenging incumbent Gary Noble for the Edmonds School District’s Director District 3 position were in a tight race in late Primary results Tuesday, Aug. 21.
With just under 20 percent of votes cast, Noble clearly led the field, receiving 58.92 percent of votes counted by 8 p.m. Jon Howeiler, with 15.61 percent of the vote, was next and appeared to be the likely challenger to Noble in November.
Mark Laurence (13.68 percent) and Douglas Kerley (11.43 percent) followed the leaders.
Howeiler, a program officer in the University of Washington at Bothell’s Education Program, said he’d been hoping to do a little bit better.
“I’m pleased I’m in second place, but I was hoping I’d be a little further ahead at this point,” he said. He said election results are “telling me I need to be talking to a lot more people and contacting more voters.”
Howeiler has been critical of the degree to which the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) is used to determine student achievement. He has said attracting quality teachers and offering professional development for them should be a higher priority.
Noble, who’s seeking re-election to a second term, thanked those who supported his campaign.
“I’m just really happy that so many people were willing to support me,” he said. “I interpret it as many people think the school district is running well.”
Noble has cited student achievement, reduced funding and capital projects as the district’s three biggest challenges.
Kerley said though the race was close, the results were likely not to change much the rest of the way.
“Of course the incumbent has a huge name familiarity advantage,” he said. “That’s why incumbents are hard to get out of there.”
Because of his background working for the U.S. Postal Service, “I know there’s about a 98 percent overnight delivery in this local area,” Kerley said. So the remaining votes would arrive mostly from out of the area and not play a large role in deciding the results.
Laurence said he’ll actively support Howeiler’s general election campaign if that’s how the primary results go.
“I think I can do more for the school district from the outside,” he said but warned: “Things are going to happen to reveal the poor decision making process of the Edmonds school district board of directors and administration.”
Snohomish County Auditor Caroline Diepenbrock originally predicted a voter turnout of 38 percent and was a bit surprised by the low number of mail-in ballots returned by election day.
“We’re hearing that our community collection centers are having a high volume, which means there are a lot of people turning in their ballots today,” she said Aug. 21.
For the most part, election day results are a good indication of the way races will play out.
“Unless you have a really, really close race, I don’t think the ballots that are being tabulated after today will change where we are with our 8 p.m. results,” Diepenbrock said.
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