Thursday, October 1, 2026
There were a number of tight contests in the Nov. 4 General Election, but in the end incumbents held fast and opponents of a citizen initiative appear to have emerged victorious.
The City of Olympia was the main battleground with several city council and port commission seats up for grabs, as well as an attempt to establish new labor standards for workers.
The following unofficial results were updated by the Thurston County Auditor’s Office Elections Division at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 5. The results are subject to change.
In the Port of Olympia, Port Commissioner District No. 2 race, incumbent Bob Iyall received 22,955 votes, while challenger Jerry Toompas garnered 22,791 votes.
In the Port of Olympia, Port Commissioner District No. 3 contest, Krag Unsoeld picked up 23,402 votes, while Anthony Hemstad got 22,120 votes. The seat is currently held by Amy Evans Harding.
In the Port of Olympia, Port Commissioner District No. 4 race, Joel Hansen got 36,711. Hansen had no formal opposition.
In the City of Olympia, City Council Position No. 4 race, incumbent Clark Gilman received 6,465 votes, while challenger Wendy Carlson had 5,074.
In the City of Olympia, City Council Position No. 5 contest, incumbent Kelly Green picked up 9,155 votes. Green faced no formal opposition.
In the City of Olympia, City Council Position No. 6 race, incumbent Robert Vanderpool received 5,993 votes, while challenger Justin Stang got 5,410 votes.
In the City of Olympia, City Council Position No. 7 race, Paul Berendt had 6,014 votes, compared with 5,197 votes for Caleb Gieger. Incumbent Jim Cooper did not seek reelection.
Proposition 1, also known as the “Workers’ Bill of Rights” initiative, received 5,194 “yes” votes (44.06 percent), compared with 6,595 “no” votes (55.94 percent). The union-backed citizen initiative aimed to establish labor standards for work scheduling, a minimum wage and other regulations.
The initiative split voters and politicians alike with the Olympia City Council taking a narrow stance against the proposal leading up to the general election. Three city council members supported the initiative, as well as Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal and local unions.
There were three city council seats up for grabs in Lacey, while Mayor Andy Ryder faced no formal opposition in his bid for reelection.
In the City of Lacey, City Council Position No. 4 race, Maren Turner garnered 4,579 votes and Charles Beck got 3,146 votes.
In the City of Lacey, City Council Position No. 6 contest, Ryan Siu received 5,204 votes, while Evette Temple got 2,428 votes.
In the City of Lacey, City Council Position No. 7 race, incumbent Carolyn Cox picked up 4,936 votes, compared with 2,741 for challenger Michael Steadman.
One council seat was contested in Tumwater, as was the mayor’s post. Incumbent City Council members Peter Agabi and Eileen Swarthout faced no formal challenge.
In the mayoral race, City Council member Leatta Dahlhoff received 3,052 votes, while Lance Brender got 1,609 votes.
In the City of Tumwater, City Council Position No. 5 contest, first-time candidate Meghan Sullivan picked up 3,007 votes and Rachelle Martin earned 1,376.
There were three city council races in Tenino, but none of the candidates were in constested races.
Three city council seats were contested in Yelm, as was the mayoral position. Two other city council candidates, Stephanie Kangiser and Terry Kaminski faced no formal opposition.
In the mayoral race, incumbent Joe DePinto received 701 votes, while challenger JW Foster picked up 553 votes.
In the City of Yelm, City Council Position No. 3 contest, Griselda Arias pulled in 592 votes and Joshua Crossman received 587 votes.
In the City of Yelm, City Council Position No. 5 race, Brian Hess received 696 votes, while Kayla Russel got 470 votes.
In the City of Yelm, City Council Position No. 6 contest, David Johnstone picked up 613 votes compared with 554 votes for Nicole Sims.
A total of 49,233 ballots were cast in the Nov. 4 General Election in Thurston County. Voter turnout was 23.07 percent. The ballot count is scheduled for certification on Nov. 25. For complete results of the Nov. 4 General Election, click here.
9 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
HappyOlympian
Great job, Olympia! Sometimes we get it right.
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 Report this
KatAshe
Sad that only 23.07% of registered voters could be bothered to spend an hour reading the voter guide, then taking 10 minutes to fill out their ballot.
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 Report this
turtleman
That percentage is incomplete. It doesn't include ballots not yet counted nor those not yet received. It looks to me as thought the final tally will get over the 30% mark.
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 Report this
ConservativeHippie
This reporting is very strange. There are still nearly double the amount of ballots to count, yet the article doesn't mention this.
It ends "A total of 49,233 ballots were cast in the Nov. 4 General Election in Thurston County. Voter turnout was 23.07 percent. The ballot count is scheduled for certification on Nov. 25. "
That seems definitive, yet matchbacks show 68k+ votes processed. So at the very least there are still 18k to count (38% of the current ballot count). But what is also missing is that ballots are continuing to be processed, so the 68k processed number is expected to rise significantly.
kinda trash reporting tbh
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 Report this
DudeInOlympia
Prop 1 was written terribly and could have been much more effective and fair for both employers and employees.
The part that is personally frustrating is the gripe on raising minimum wage for small businesses. Screw large businesses, Walmart should be paying their employees enough money so they can actually shop there with their paycheck and not government subsidies. You work a 40 hour a week job then you should be able to pay for food and rent with your paycheck. But when it comes to small businesses the wording states that small businesses would start at $3 less than the proposed final wage rate, $20, so that means they start around $17 and add in $0.50 every year until it meets the threshold, so it would take about 6 years. If you tack the current inflation rate at roughly 2.5%, then 2.5% increase on $17 is about $0.43. Mandatory inflationary compensation pay increases should not be such a hot button topic imo. 88% of minimum wage workers in America are adults and the majority of them have families. Give people a fighting chance in this dismal economy. Raising the minimum wage is not the devil
Thursday, November 6, 2025 Report this
Claire
It is real easy to get votes in a socialist city council race. All you have to do is promise everything to be free and voila you get the votes and win. Trouble is, it is gone when you run out of other peoples' money.... At least, Prop1 failed...must be some smart voters in Olympia.
Thursday, November 6, 2025 Report this
Westside2
City of Olympia wants to study it more. Just need a few money $ to study the issue.
Be great if the City got back to maintaining a clean and helpful city rather than indulging in every aspect of the fox news culture war bs.
Help businesses and homeowners- stop treating them as the enemy. And for god’s sake stop studying issues and start solving problems
Thursday, November 6, 2025 Report this
Wesley
No dumps of boxes of uncreased, perfectly flat ballots to put Prop. 1 over the line?
Friday, November 7, 2025 Report this
PissAnt
A couple of thoughts: 1. Reading the voters pamphlet is useless as its trying to decide between 2 people I don't want to vote for. The thing that helped me was the Democratic party mailer that arrived with my ballot showing me who NOT to vote for, all the people they endorsed. 2. This was the first time I've ever voted for a law (Prop 1) that I actually thought was bad for the city. I'm glad it failed because I don't think it would have helped Downtown Olympia at all or the rest of Olympia.
Monday, November 17, 2025 Report this