Anderson Wants Name Off Ballot Independent Candidate Files Suit After Withdrawing From Race

A week after withdrawing from the Spokane County commission election, independent candidate Chris Anderson is suing to remove his name from the November ballot.

Printing ballots with his name would do a “disservice and injustice to the voters of Spokane County,” Anderson claims in a lawsuit filed late Tuesday against County Auditor Bill Donahue.

Donahue, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, has said he needs a court order to leave Anderson’s name off the ballot.

The secretary of state’s office agrees.

Anderson withdrew from the race last Thursday, conceding he couldn’t win and saying he didn’t want to draw votes away from Republican primary winner Martin Burnette. Anderson said he sacrificed his own campaign in hopes Democrat John Roskelley would lose Nov. 7.

“The whole point is fairness to the voters,” Anderson said. “I believe a candidate who submits himself to voters for election to office should have the prerogative to remove himself.”

Anderson said he will work to change state elections laws, which require extraordinary circumstances before a candidate’s name can be removed from a ballot after the primary election.

Normally, such circumstances are death or relocation.

A candidate can’t take his marbles and go home just because he smells defeat, said David Brine, public information officer for the secretary of state’s office.

“If a person can go to a court and persuade them that there is another good reason to take them off, then the courts can do that,” Brine said.

“But generally, it’s a pretty tough road to hoe when you just don’t want to be a candidate,” he said.

Anderson, acting as his own counsel, will ask Superior Court Judge Robert Austin at 3 p.m. Friday to grant such a court order.

Anderson, currently a member of the Spokane City Council, is being aided by Duane Sommers, chairman of the Spokane County Republican Party.

Sommers said his research concludes that Anderson’s name can be struck from the ballot because the ballots aren’t yet printed. There also is a statute involving prevention of fraud, he said.

“Obviously, it’s to our benefit as the Republican Party to have only one Republican and one Democrat,” Sommers said. “Our fear is that if there is an independent candidate, our candidate (Burnette) doesn’t stand the same chance of winning.”

, DataTimes