Homola now in front by 59 votes | Whidbey Commissioners Race

Democrat Angie Homola now leads incumbent Republican Island County Commissioner Mac McDowell by 59 votes in the race for the District 2 seat on the board of commissioners.

Homola led by 60 votes in the previous vote tally, which was conducted on Friday.

Homola, an Oak Harbor architect taking her first shot at elected office, was ahead by 19,203 votes to McDowell's 19,144.

The county elections office had originally planned to resume counting Monday, but postponed a tally earlier this week after only four ballots were verified for counting after the weekend.

The county currently estimates 100 more votes may be counted.

Elections officials, however, stress that the number does not mean there are actually a hundred ballots awaiting processing.

Instead, the estimate is based on the number of ballots that may arrive in the mail in the days ahead, including a guess on how many voters may respond to letters the county has sent out due to questionable signatures on some ballots.

"I can't stress the word 'estimated' enough," Deputy Auditor Michele Reagan said earlier this week, after the county released an estimate of 120 ballots left to count.

"It doesn't mean we have 120 ballots we have in a drawer we don't feel like counting yet," she said. "Have we counted everything we have? You bet."

Reagan said very few ballots are still coming in.

"We're down to drips and drops coming in the mail. Usually Monday is a heavy mail day; we got four.

"We have to see what comes in the mail in the next couple of days. We've done all we can do to this point," she added. "We are waiting for people to respond to letters we sent them."

A few provisional ballots are still being received from other counties, Reagan said.

Homola leads in the race with 50.0 percent of the vote; McDowell has 49.9. A total of 38,347 ballots have been counted in the race so far.

COMMENTING RULES: We encourage an open exchange of ideas in the PNWLocalNews.com community, but we ask you to follow our guidelines for respecting community standards. In a nutshell, don't say anything you wouldn't want your mother to read. So keep your comments:

• Civil
• Smart
• On-topic
• Free of profanity

We ask that all participants own their words by registering for an account. It's a simple process that will take seconds and helps keep our comments free of trolls, cranks, and drive-by commenters.

As a community site, we ask that the community help by using the "Flag" button on each comment if they feel the comment has violated the rules. You can also use the up and down arrows on each comment to voice your opinion about that particular comment.

Want to tell us something but you don't want it to be public? Talk to us privately.