Newly counted ballots reverse who’s winning this important Richland race
Richland City Councilman Kurt Maier has overcome a 24-vote deficit in his bid for a new term after results of Tuesday’s general election were updated on Thursday.
Now, new vote counts released Thursday gave Maier a 334-vote lead over Kyle Saltz, who was endorsed by the Benton County GOP for the nonpartisan position.
With 11,600 ballots counted, Maier had 5,961 votes and Saltz had 5,627 votes. The tally stood at 51.4% to 48.5%.
The Benton County Auditor will update results again at 4 p.m., Friday.
A reversal giving Saltz the lead is unlikely.
Maier, a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Employee who lives in north Richland, was first elected to the city council in 2023.
Under Richland’s city charter, he received a two-year term as the candidate who won election with the least number of votes that year.
Saltz, who works for the Hanford Patrol, lives in south Richland.
The winning candidate with the lowest vote count on Thursday was Ryan Whitten, an incumbent who was defeating his challenger, Colin Michael, for Position 7 by 5,872 votes to 5,563 votes, or 51% to 49%.
In other races, GOP-endorsed Pat Holten won 6,939 votes against her ineligible challenger, Robert Walko, who received 4,544 votes in their race for the Position 3 seat currently held by Sandra Kent.
In Position 4, the seat being vacated by Ryan Lukson, the late Donald Landsman won 6,563 votes against John Maier’s 4,886.
John Maier is Kurt Maier’s son and a recent high school graduate. The Benton County GOP encouraged Richland voters to give the nod to Landsman, whose seat will be filled by appointment in the new year, since he was technically the winner.
Measure 1, which would have amended Richland’s city charger to change how the city chooses leaders, continued to fail with 6,721 “no” votes and 5,325 “yes” ones, according to Thursday evening numbers.
Randy Slovic, a Richland resident who spearheaded the pro-Measure 1 campaign, said she is stepping down but noted a new generation could step up.
The proposal would have replaced Richland’s council, elected from at-large, with a mix of five district-based seats and only two at-large ones.
This story was originally published November 5, 2025 at 6:00 PM.