EPHRATA — Challenger Darrik Gregg held an early lead over incumbent Grant County Sheriff Joey Kriete following the first release of election results Tuesday night, but both candidates said the outcome remains uncertain with thousands of ballots still waiting to be processed.

Preliminary results as of Nov. 3 showed Gregg with 6,670 votes, or about 54.7%, compared to 5,392 votes, or about 44.3%, for Kriete. There were also 123 write-in candidates, or about 1% of the vote. 

However, Grant County Elections Coordinator Rebecca Pettingill said Wednesday that the county still has a substantial number of ballots left to count before election certification Nov. 24.

"There are somewhere around 6,000 to 7,000 ballots, just in office, and then we still have people going out to the drop boxes and picking up ballots," Pettingill said. "If we're going to be anywhere near where we were in 2022, which we're still on kind of track to be, we'll probably process another 15,000 ballots before the end of the election."

Pettingill said election results will be updated daily at 5 p.m. through certification and urged voters to be patient as staff work through the remaining ballots.

"Our system does not report a ballot as accepted until it has been signature verified by our staff in our office," she said. "We're human, and we're hand reviewing every single signature on every single ballot."

With thousands of ballots still outstanding, neither candidate considered the race decided.

Gregg said he was encouraged by the initial returns, but he remains cautious until the election is certified.

"I was excited. I was very humbled by the amount of votes on the initial drop that we got," Gregg said. "Again, I'm going to stay humble and I'm going to stay just watching and not hanging my hat on anything until the 24th of November. I just want to make sure that we don't put the cart before the horse."

If the lead holds, Gregg said his administration would focus on agency culture, communication and employee engagement. He said one of his first priorities would be evaluating operations at the new county jail and addressing concerns raised by employees.

"The jail is probably the number one priority," Gregg said. "Getting in there and talking to people and finding out what's not working and how we can change that."

Gregg also said he would prioritize improving employee morale and ensuring staff members feel heard.

"I want people to have buy-in at the sheriff's office," he said. "My door will always be open, and I'm going to foster a culture where people feel comfortable coming in and saying, 'Hey, can you give me a why we're doing that?'"

Kriete said he anticipated a close race and was not surprised by the early numbers.

"I knew that things were going to be close," Kriete said. "I wouldn't say that I was shocked or disappointed or anything. It was expected, how close things are."

The incumbent said he remains hopeful that ballots counted in the coming days could still affect the outcome.

"Of course I'm hopeful," Kriete said. "I haven't given up on anything, and we'll just see how this week and next week goes as far as the numbers go."

Kriete pointed to the opening of the new county jail, staffing improvements and the creation of the sheriff's office crime reduction team among the administration's accomplishments.

"When we started, the sheriff's office was down 25 employees," Kriete said. "We overcame that staffing problem, which was for the betterment of the community. It reduced our response times. It reduced crime in the community."

Kriete also credited the sheriff's office workforce for those achievements.

"It's just an absolute honor to be their sheriff," he said. "We have phenomenal deputies and employees that work for the Grant County Sheriff's Office."

Both candidates said the agency's focus should remain on serving county residents regardless of who ultimately wins the election.

"I think coming into it with a different outlook on taking care of people is important," Gregg said. "Servant leadership is my direction and my path on how I want to lead the sheriff's office."

Kriete said public service must remain the agency's top priority moving forward.

"One hundred percent serving the community first," he said. "It cannot be about any individual's success."

Pettingill said voters who have already returned ballots but do not yet see them marked as accepted online should not be concerned.

"We do our best to make sure everybody who is eligible to vote and has turned their ballot in on time gets counted, and we do it as fast but accurately as possible," she said. “If it’s still not showing as counted by Monday, that’s when we recommend you give us a call but until then, let us work through some of these ballots.” 

Additional ballot counts are expected throughout the coming weeks, and the results will remain unofficial until Grant County certifies the election Nov. 24.