Joe Kent encourages supporters to ‘relax’

Despite trailing in the initial results of his race, Joe Kent remained optimistic as he addressed his supporters Tuesday night in Brush Prairie. Photo by Mike Schultz
Despite trailing in the initial results of his race, Joe Kent remained optimistic as he addressed his supporters Tuesday night in Brush Prairie. Photo by Mike Schultz

Republican is hoping to make an even bigger comeback than the one he made just three months ago

Joe Kent has been through this before. In fact, it was just three months ago.

“The count has come in,’’ Kent told supporters gathered in Brush Prairie Tuesday night. “It’s not final by any means. We still have how many votes left to count? Probably 175,000.’’

The Republican trailed Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez by 11,123 votes in the first results of the Third Congressional District race provided by the Secretary of State’s office Tuesday night. Perez has 52.62 percent (100,564) of the votes and Kent has 46.68 percent (89,441).

In the August primary election, Kent trailed current Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler by 4,707 votes. In the days that followed, Kent overcame that deficit to earn a spot on the November general election against Perez, owner of a small business in Portland and resident of Skamania County.

Joe Kent interacts with some of his supporters Tuesday night in Brush Prairie. Photo by Mike Schultz
Joe Kent interacts with some of his supporters Tuesday night in Brush Prairie. Photo by Mike Schultz

The Third Congressional District includes six counties – Clark, Skamania, Cowlitz, Lewis, Pacific and Wahkiakum – and part of Thurston County. In Clark County, Tuesday’s initial results included the ballots of 36.37 percent (118,933) of the 327,049 registered voters. Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey estimated the total turnout could be as high as 65 percent once all the ballots are counted. 

“We’re technically down right now, but how many of you guys voted on game day?’’ Kent asked his supporters Tuesday night before pointing to his comeback in the primary election. “You guys know exactly how that turned out. So, really, just relax. Let them count the votes. Make sure you’re going to the Washington GOV site to make sure that your vote has actually been counted. That’s pretty uncommon.’’

Kent also urged his supporters to check and see if there ballots have been rejected and need to be cured.

“You can go through, you can see the screenshots of what’s supposed to happen because ballot curing might become very critical in this,’’ Kent said. “We can cure ballots up until the 28th. So that’s the important thing. Check that site right now.’’

Updated election results
Clark County Today will continue to report on updated election results. For updated results in Clark County, go to ClarkVotes.com. For Washington statewide election results, including federal races, go to VoteWA.gov. For state of Oregon results, go to OregonVotes.gov.


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21 Comments

  1. Mike

    Florida banned mass mail-in ballots, banned ballot harvesting, required voter ID, and has an election police force. In what should have been a very bad year for incumbents not a single governor or senator lost their jobs. If you want to know what is going on you have to study Biden’s Executive Order 14019 and ask how federal agencies are implementing that order and how it may conflict with the Hatch Act of 1939.

    It is difficult enough to work toward getting elected and the Federal Government should be an honest umpire. In today’s reality we see a partisan coach, not any different from the old PRI party that ruled Mexico for 70 years.

    Reply
  2. Fiona

    I well remember the night in early 2021 when Heidi whats-her-name was in the middle of announcing her candidacy after having been chosen by the local republican party for this role. Kents appearance at that meeting was a complete surprise to everyone there except perhaps Joey Gibson and others of his ilk. We’ll now see how effective putting local control into Steve Bannon’s hands has served the GOP, both locally and nationally.

    Reply
  3. Melissa

    Nice article! Election turnout in the 2018 midterms was 70%. I would be surprised if 2022 turnout were down from that; it seems to only go up each election cycle. That would mean an election-day total of 100,000 ballots returned in Clark County. Has anyone heard the count? It was 38,000 for the morning. What numbers came in later in the day?

    Reply
  4. Margaret

    Checked status, and it is just “received”. Will check back later to see what the status of my envelope that held the ballot is. The actual ballot is someplace else, not monitored by cameras. There are election observers, who are restricted from noting irregularites, “no pencil or paper to record issues……no phones to be able to record issues….no asking questions or pointing out issues” according to some doing that public service. See this Letter to the Editor that includes comments by Elections Observers that describes the strict limits of the “observing” that is allowed.

    Reply
    1. Fiona

      In addition recently to allowing extra folks to watch,isn’t there a process going on whereby reps from each party are allowed to see and if necessary challenge any unopened envelopes? That’s the orderly fashion by which elections have been conducted for many years.

      Reply
      1. Margaret

        One observer commented, “As an Elections Observer in August, I experienced the frustration of the inability to make note of my observations and questions with solid details on paper.
        On one occasion I was observing signature verification and I thought I observed an issue, but I wasn’t allowed to write down what I observed. I took the issue to (election staff) who researched my question. Her feedback was that she didn’t see any issues. Further, she told me that my “job is to observe and not to audit”.

        Seems like the election department should allow the recording of concerns on paper and by photographed images, and allow observers to be close enough to accurately record concerns. If observers can’t document concerns, how can a challenge be made?

        Reply
      1. Ashen

        let me guess, you still think russia stole it from hillary though, and spent years denying trump won…

        and, its really not hard to find reports even from msm sources of fraud related to mail in voting, in our state they found a bunch of ballots dumped a couple times(WA) years ago, same as happened other places..

        i dont care what party it is… people need to stop voting based on party, stop trusting commercials and the media like you clearly do…. you bitch about fox news watchers and sound like a sound bite from cnn…

        Reply
    1. Wolfie

      I agree. I miss going to the precinct and voting in person. That was when observers were allowed to actually observe and comment if they see something hanky going on. Precinct captains were proud of their volunteer duties. Just because kids ‘want to vote on their phones’ doesn’t mean they should be allowed to. There is something to be said for doing things ‘the old fashioned way’. Sometimes.. certain things should not change. Vote tallying used to be done in a day… if we are so progressive, why is it taking days in AZ and NV? The only answer is cheating.

      Reply
  5. Dave Roberts

    Yeppers….we need to go back to the old style VOTE process. Going to the school or fire station to cast your vote was all part of the process. Most of us thought it worked well. 😉👍

    Reply
      1. Ashen

        we get it, you hate the idea of having to leave your home to vote, i bet you are against voter id laws, citizenship requirements, and boarders as well..

        and… i know a good number of young people who have said they would be down to “go and vote” if it assured that their ballots were both counted, and that sketchy ones were not..

        you are aware the democrats have been suing to count invalid ballots with things like missing dates, missing sigs, etc, right?

        Reply
  6. Crazy

    He’s doing worse in all counties than Tiffany Smiley. Last count Tiffany had about 62K votes in Clark County and Kent only had 56K. He may still pull it out, but it is clear the many voters inclined to vote republican are not voting for Kent. Trump and Trumpism is a stain on the Republican party. This particular election would be over by now of JHB wasn’t ousted simply because she voted for principle instead of the person.

    Reply
    1. Washougal Mom

      Voting in person in not the answer people. So outdated. How many young people below 30yo would vote?? None…they want to vote on their phone. We need to move forward and get beyond these vote fraud claims none of which have been substantiated. Kent is a extremist conspiracy theorist who should move on and find a real job.

      Reply
      1. Ashen

        great idea, vote by phone so secure, its not like that wouldnt be exploited and easy to exploit at all..

        but hey, as long as democrats win, you know it was a legit and valid election, when they lose, you know it was stolen.. so.. why do we even need voting?

        Reply
        1. Crazy

          Name the other non-Trumpian officials, democrat or republican, the claimed an election they lost was stolen or fraudulent? This election is stolen nonsense is Trump phenomena driven by insatiable ego and groundless in fact. The closest I can remember is Gore’s loss to Bush and he conceded and urged the nation to unite around Bush. Trump is a bright orange stain on the underpants of democracy.

          Reply
          1. Vince

            Well you identified Al Gore as one. You have clearly forgotten Hillary Clinton’s incesent claim that the presidential election of 2016 was stolen from her. Also, there’s Stacy Abrahm’s incesent claims that the Georgia gobenatorial election was stolen from her. Locally Queen Christine would not allow her gobanatorial election to be called until after her 3rd recount in which just enough ballots were found to make her the victor over Rossi. And you wonder why people are skeptical of elections that don’t require ID?

          2. Crazy

            I voted for Rossi. I don’t recall Gregoire claiming rampant fraud etc. and I think Rossi lost fair and square. And, for the record, I think Kent is right not to concede until every vote is counted-it’s too close. In the seven levels of hell Hillary is a floor or two above Trump so I won’t go there and Abrahams filed a lawsuit alleging discriminatory practices disenfranchised voters. She lost and moved on. I have no problem with Kent or any other politician going to court-that’s they way it works. My point, which is lost on you, is that all others conceded. Trumpians and Trump still maintain the election was stolen and that there is rampant fraud which undermines democracy.

          3. Vince

            The point you obviously don’t get is that you are quiet incorrect on Hillary, while she did concede finally, she has never admitted she lost that election stating dozens of excuses for her loss instead of her toxic political personality. Abrahm’s did file suit in court and lost, she has never conceded the loss and has continued that stance. You are obviously a never-Trumper which makes you blinded by ideology which is sad. So what if Trump continues to say the election was stolen. Blind people like you need to look past the mans personality and examine his policy positions which out shine all other recent presidents (Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush) prior to him. Take your blinders off and look at the whole picture and not just the part you want to be true. Given that mathmaticians stated at the end of election night in 2020 that it was mathmaticallty impossible for Trump to lose Pensylvania, Georgia and Arizona and yet the next few days to lose those states, wouldn’t that cause you some concern? To many irregularities about that election to not want answers.

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