OKANOGAN – Okanogan County voters are favoring the two incumbents, Chris Branch and Andy Hover for county commissioner positions in the first count of Tuesday’s general election.

Chris Branch, who was challenged by Shauna Beeman for District 1, received 6,834, or 59.03 percent of the votes in the election day count. Beeman received 4,709 votes, or 40.68 percent. While Branch did not chose a preferred party, Beeman is running as a Republican.

In the race for District 2, Hover, a Republican, leads with 6,555, or 55.33 percent. Haven, a Democrat, earned 5,270 votes in the first election count for 44.48 percent of the ballots counted.

While incumbent Governor Jay Inslee is winning a return to the governor’s mansion by over 600,000 votes, Okanogan County, like most of Eastern Washington, favored Loren Culp, the Republican challenger. In Okanogan County, Culp had 6,799, or 56.05 percent of the vote. Inslee, a Democrat, received 5,305 votes, for 43.73 percent of the votes counted. Culp leads in every county in Eastern Washington, with the exception of Whitman County.

Republican incumbent, Donald Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, had 6,272 ballots, or 51.57 percent, cast in the county favoring his return to the White House. Democrat Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris, had 5,661 or 46.55 percent. Statewide Washington voters prefer Biden over Trump, but it was too soon to see which candidate will win the nation overall at this point in the ballot count.

Voter turnout was 47.33 percent in Okanogan County. According to county election officials, there are 12,216 ballots that were counted in the first round and an estimated 8,935 left to count. The next ballot count is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 6 at 5 p.m. The tallies are not official until certified on Nov. 24.