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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Unclear ballots scrutinized

One man’s apparent distaste for county commissioner candidates almost got his ballot disqualified Monday.

“I’d do a better job than any monkee you’ve had in there!” a voter wrote on his ballot (original spelling intact) next to the names of Phil Harris and Bonnie Mager. The man voted for a write-in candidate, presumably himself.

The Spokane County Canvassing Board met to consider about 100 ballots cast by folks who didn’t follow standard voting rules, including the one sent by the man concerned about monkeys masquerading as politicians.

“People take the time to cast a vote, but sometimes they don’t take much time in filling out their ballot,” said county Commissioner Todd Mielke, who is one of three canvassing board members.

Monday’s meeting received extra attention because of the closeness of the race between Mager and Harris as well the contest for state House between John Serben and Don Barlow. Auditor Vicky Dalton said decisions made by the canvassing board could play a role in deciding the Barlow-Serben election.

Observing the meeting were Mager and a few Democratic Party volunteers. No Republicans were in attendance.

While there haven’t been the kind of widespread problems that existed with, say, the infamous hanging chads of Florida’s 2000 election, hundreds of Spokane County ballots are in danger of being tossed, mostly because of signature problems.

Officials compare every signature on file to the one on the return envelope. If the signatures don’t match, or the voter forgot to sign, the ballots are put on hold and voters are warned they have until 5 p.m. Monday to clear up problems.

Parties were given lists of those with outstanding signature issues. They are allowed to contact voters to clear up the problems.

Larry Soehren came to the elections office Monday to turn in a new signature after being informed that his didn’t match. He said he wasn’t surprised, because the one on file is three decades old.

“It looked like my 18-year-old signature,” Soehren said. “I found that (my signature) is not as well defined after so many years.”

Soehren said the process gives him comfort that election officials are paying attention.

Canvassing board members had no significant disagreements at Monday’s meeting. Some ballots were disqualified entirely. Others had only some votes disqualified.

Much discussion stemmed from voters who used non-standard voting techniques. For instance, some checked ovals of the candidate they preferred. Others used X’s.

In many cases the board had to determine wether at least half an oval was filled; Mielke said he felt like a judge at a preschool coloring contest.

Auditor Vicky Dalton told the canvassing board that elections rules say that if there’s a clear pattern on the entire ballot, then it should count. After agreeing to disqualify a ballot on which a voter marked candidates with checks all the way through until the last vote, which the voter cast with an X, Mielke said that rule didn’t seem fair.

As for the “monkee” ballot, the board wasn’t concerned about his opinion so much as the voter identifying himself. State law says any ballot signed by the voter must be tossed. Since his criticism was written in the first-person, election workers assumed that the man had identified himself on the write-in line.

Board members argued that there’s no rule against writing in your own name.

Canvassing Board verdict: Count it.