Preliminary St. George city council election results: Leaders emerge from early totals

Early vote totals in the race for three open seats on the St. George City Council showed six clear leaders late Tuesday, although votes were still being counted in the city's special primary election.

State election rules make it so the top six from Tuesday's primary will make it onto November's general election ballot. The early numbers suggest that's just what Washington County's largest city would get — a clear top six.

According to preliminary totals released by the Washington County elections office, incumbents Jimmie Hughes and Dannielle Larkin held the early lead but were followed by a tightly bunched group that included Steve Kemp, incumbent Gregg McArthur, Paula Smith and Brad Bennett.

No other candidate was within 500 votes of those leaders, with Wendi Prince Bulkley the closest.

As of 11 p.m., the vote totals were:

Still, the results were far from final. The vote totals reported late Tuesday were preliminary, with some late-arriving and provisional ballots still left to be counted. Since the municipal elections were done primarily through mail-in voting and could be postmarked as late as Election Day, ballots could continue to be counted until the votes are officially certified. This usually takes place one to two weeks after an election.

There are three seats up for election this year on the city's five-member council. Initially, 16 people filed to run, although two were later disqualified for failing to turn in their campaign finance paperwork.

The primary election will decide which six finalists make it to the November general election, which is scheduled for Nov. 21.

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: St. George city council election preliminary results are posted