Former Tacoma City Council member Bill Baarsma held on to his election-night lead over Pierce County Council member Harold Moss in the race for the mayor of Tacoma.
“It looks like it’s going to be Baarsma,” county Auditor Cathy Pearsall-Stipek said.
Voters overwhelmingly approved all three statewide initiatives on Tuesday’s ballot.
Initiative 747, sponsored by Mukilteo’s Tim Eyman, will cap property tax growth to 1 percent annually, unless voters say otherwise.
Initiative 733 guarantees that Washington state will have the highest cigarette tax in the nation, with the price of a pack of cigarettes passing the $5 mark on Jan. 1, 2002, when the initiative is set to take effect.
I-733 taxes cigarette sales to finance subsidized health care.
Also approved by voters was Initiative 775, which would establish care standards for in-home service providers.
According to unofficial election results from the Pierce County Auditor’s Office, there were 110,554 ballots cast, out of 351,206 registered voters, for a voter turnout rate of 31 percent.
At press time, the Auditor’s Office was scheduled to update unofficial election results at 4 p.m.