Water District Won’T Get Repeat Election Defeated Candidate Had Sought Vote Because Of Uncast Ballots

Sat., Jan. 15, 2000

By Tom Sowa toms@spokesman.com (509) 459-5492

A defeated Spokane Valley water district candidate will not get a new election, a judge ruled Friday.

Anthony Lazanis, who lost a race against Don Skillingstad Jr. for Irvin Water District commissioner, had sued the county, saying he deserved a second election.

Lazanis said more than 130 voters in the district never cast ballots in the water commissioner’s election Nov.2.

Lazanis ended up losing to Skillingstad, the incumbent, by 73 votes.

In his lawsuit, filed in December, Lazanis said irregularities in how some voters cast ballots cost him a chance to unseat Skillingstad.

But Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor denied Lazanis’ claim that the county is obliged to conduct a second election.

While some voters in the water district may have been given improper instructions on how to cast ballots, O’Connor could find no reason that Lazanis’ election chances suffered more than his opponent’s.

Voting in the water district race took place at Trent Elementary School. Voters who live in the water district received blue-coded ballots to indicate they were eligible to vote for water commissioner.

All those voters were supposed to use a blue-coded election machine. But election workers on Nov. 2 apparently allowed some of the blue-coded ballots to be used in a different voting machine.

That different machine did not show the names of Lazanis and Skillingstad.

No one knows how many ballots were placed in the wrong machine, county election officials said.

But Deputy County Prosecutor James Emacio also pointed out that not all the 130 nonvotes resulted from the machine mix-up.

Several voters on Nov. 2 told election workers they did not recognize the commissioner candidates and said they were not voting in that race, Emacio said.

In addition, Emacio produced election records from other water-district races showing many voters did not cast ballots in those commissioner races either.

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