There will be no primary election this year on Whidbey Island.
But there will be a special three-day filing period in early August for people to sign up for 10 positions that nobody sought in the regular candidate filing period last week, according to Island County Elections Supervisor Michele Reagan.
The positions with no candidates are seats on the boards for the Port of Coupeville and South Whidbey Fire/EMS, as well as various water and sewer districts.
Reagan explained that there’s an exception in state law to the partisan primary rule of always having a primary when a partisan office is involved. The law says that when the partisan office involved is a county partisan office, unexpired term and only one candidate files for the office, no primary election will be held.
That’s the case this year with Bernie Upchurch being the only candidate for county assessor. The Republican was appointed to the position after the former assessor resigned.
Also, no races on Whidbey Island have more than two candidates after a total of eight people removed their names from the list of candidates, though one refiled for another seat. The deadline for withdrawing as a candidate was May 24, Reagan explained.
Three candidates decided not to run for the South Whidbey School Board. Emily Uhl and Lorinda Newton withdrew their names from Position 4, leaving Farrah Manning Davis and Marnie Jackson. Greg Dalrymple withdrew from Position 5, leaving Ann Johnson and Bree Kramer-Nelson. Dawn Tarantino and Andrea Downs are both running for Position 2.
In the races for the Coupeville School Board, Ward Sparacio withdrew as a Position 2 candidate and filed for Position 5 instead. Kathleen Anderson, the incumbent, Chad Crouch and Rainy Richardson-Simpson withdrew as candidates for Position 5.
That leaves Sparacio and Morgan White in the running for Position 5. Nancy Conard is facing Paul Rempa for the Position 2 seat and Sherry Phay is running unopposed for her Position 3 seat.
In addition, Claude Johnston withdrew as a candidate for Position 5 on the board of North Whidbey Pool, Park and Recreation, leaving James Marrow as the sole candidate for the position.
