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.

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.