Voters in the City of Washington’s Third Ward and Washington County District 3 cast ballots for new representatives to fill vacant seats in Tuesday’s special election.

Republican nominee Marcus Fedler won the District 3 Board of Supervisors race against fellow candidates Johnathan Bartholomew, Dwight Miller, and Josh Schreiber. The Ainsworth resident owns Custom Impressions, Inc. in Washington, and he shares how it felt to run in a crowded race, “Historically, special elections have low turnout so it was pretty hard to do a regular campaign on something like this. So you just had to focus on getting people called which we did and getting the word out as best as we can. We had about two and a half weeks to campaign so it wasn’t like we had a whole lot of time but we got it done.”

Fedler will be serving the term vacated by Abe Miller, which lasts through 2022. For the Washington City Council Ward 3 seat, retired Washington City Clerk Illa Earnest won against Haleigh Brockman. As she retired this past December, Earnest comments on now losing her new free time on Tuesday nights, “I guess for a moment I thought that would be nice but there are so many good things going on, so many good projects that I really wanted to be part of the ongoing decision making and just continue with the council that’s been really doing good things for Washington. And then I thought with as many years of experience I got with [my] background, it would be a shame to just walk away.”

Earnest says she is excited to serve as council member, and she thanks everyone who voted in the election. Her term lasts through 2023, which was vacated by Brendan DeLong when he was elected as the city’s fire chief. Election results are unofficial until a canvassing by the board of supervisors.