Election reporting is fishy business

During his final day on the job Wednesday, Post Falls City Administrator Jim Hammond was in an expansive mood – until I mentioned the 1991 mayoral election. Then, we both busted up. Come with me back to Nov. 5, 1991. Around 10:30 p.m. that day, Jim, then the appointed mayor, learned that his community had overwhelmingly rejected his bid for a four-year term in a three-way mayor’s race. Seems Hammond had received only 14 votes of the first 327 cast. Challenger Buck Wilhelm was well out in front with 219 votes, followed by Charles “Bob” Kupfer with 108. Hammond was stunned. I should have been suspicious. Or at least asked questions about the fishy smell on the fingers of the counters. After the polls closed, Marilyn Fehling, the late city clerk, and her staff had delayed the ballot count to take a 45-minute break to consume fish and chips, clam chowder and coffee. Belatedly, they sorted the ballots into three piles and counted the smallest stacks first. As I bugged him at deadline time for election results, Hammond demanded that Fehling release the total she had at the moment. She did without telling anyone that Hammond was the obvious winner, judging from the size of the sorted piles. The next day, the S-R headline shouted: “Wilhelm leads mayoralty race by wide margin.” The day after that, another headline responded: “Post Falls mayor wins after all.” It was a North Idaho version of “Dewey Beats Truman.” In the end, Jim received 388 votes. Better yet, he didn’t have to leave town in embarrassment.