Final Call Made On 1,400 Ballots
Spokane elections officials had a date Wednesday with chad - dimpled, pregnant and otherwise.
Under the watchful eyes of attorneys from both major parties, three people - one elected Democrat, one elected Republican and one deputy county attorney who has served bosses of both political persuasion - had the final say on whether hundreds of ballots got thrown into Spokane’s final election tally.
“We’re going to do everything we can to see that the intent of the voter is counted,” County Commissioner Phil Harris said before the Canvassing Board began deliberations on some 1,400 ballots that had some question about how they were punched, when they were mailed or who cast them.
Some of the first decisions involved three dozen ballots that weren’t properly punched, and still had the small perforated squares, known as chads, attached.
Some chads were punched clean through, but didn’t break away.
Others were dented but still on the card - dimpled or pregnant, for those following the Florida recount in the presidential race. Some two dozen of those ballots came from a Spokane city precinct that apparently had a malfunctioning voting machine. Some voters apparently didn’t get their computer card all the way into the slot so that it lined up with the holes in the ballot booklet.
“Voters should not be disenfranchised if we determine the error was in the equipment,” said County Auditor Vicky Dalton, a Democrat.
The board agreed to count any race on those ballots in which the perforated box was dimpled, punched or otherwise marked. But if the mark was outside of the box, and between the space for two different candidates, the ballot wouldn’t count for that race.
Because the U.S. Senate race is headed for a recount, both parties sent attorneys and local officials to watch the Canvassing Board. They asked questions, but no one raised any objections.
Some 400 ballots were rejected because they came from people who were not registered to vote. Ditto for another 94 that came from voters who registered too late, 45 from voters whose registration was canceled and eight from felons who had lost the right to vote.
The board rejected 232 ballots that were mailed too late.
Another 110 absentee ballots were rejected because those voters didn’t sign their envelopes and election workers were not able to contact them over the past two weeks to get a signed statement that they voted. Twelve were rejected because voters printed, rather than signed, their names, as required by law.
Another 37 absentee ballots had signatures that didn’t match the signatures on file. But two mail-in ballots with signatures that didn’t match were approved for special circumstances explained in accompanying notes. One was signed by the husband of a 76-year-old woman dying of cancer, the other by a relative of a 90-year-old woman who is legally blind, hospitalized, and didn’t want to fill out a new signature card because “she doesn’t know if she will vote again.”
Another absentee ballot came with a note from a woman asking that it be disregarded, and a new ballot be sent to her. That envelope wasn’t opened until after the election, and when elections workers called to explain why she didn’t get a new ballot, the woman asked that her ballot just be discarded.
The canvassing board said it had to be counted.
“Once that ballot is posted in the mail, it’s cast,” said deputy county attorney Rob Binger, the third member of the Canvassing Board. “I don’t think you have the right to retrieve it.”
This sidebar appeared with the story: SPOKANE COUNTY Final results
After settling all questions, Spokane County elections officials fed approved ballots into the vote-counting machine and published final results that settled, but did not change, the few close races.
Republican John Ahern defeated Democrat Jack Geraghty for an open state House of Representatives position in the 6th District.
The Spokane city charter amendment that makes government language “gender neutral” passed.
A city ballot proposal to fluoridate the water supply failed.