Spin Control: VoteWA tracker works great – if your info is right. Plus, how one couple’s outdated yard sign speaks to modern political urges

Washington voters are taking advantage of the VoteWA system, which can quickly provide more information than ever on the status of their ballot.

Enter your name and date of birth at VoteWA.gov and the computer will tell you if your ballot has been mailed out, received back, and accepted or challenged.

Most, but not all the time. It’s a computer, so garbage in, garbage out.

Or so Barbara Cagle of Loon Lake discovered last week after her daughter urged her to check to see if her ballot, mailed about a week earlier, was accepted.

She entered her name and DOB and was told she wasn’t registered. She was confused, because she’d been voting for more than 20 years from the same address. She also was worried her recently posted ballot might not count, given all the concerns expressed about mail-in ballots.

She called the Stevens County elections office, where she was initially told she wasn’t registered. A supervisor was summoned and eventually determined she was registered, but with the wrong birthdate.

The month and day were right, but the year was listed as 1954; she was born in 1952. How and when the mistake was made isn’t clear. Her driver’s license has the correct date, so it wouldn’t have happened with a license renewal. It could have been entered wrong when she first registered in Spokane County in 1986, or when they moved to Loon Lake years later.

Ballots are processed based on a signature check, not a birthdate check, so Cagle’s ballot had been accepted and will be counted, which was her main concern.

Stevens County Auditor Lori Larsen said she’d check back through records to see if she could determine when the mistake happened.

It might never have been caught without VoteWA.org.

“That’s where we want people going,” Larsen said. All that checking produces occasional difficulties that prompt people to call the elections office “but I’m not seeing a pattern.”

Voter 4-1-1

Most Sundays before an election, Spin Control offers voters who haven’t cast their ballots help in finding information about candidates or issues that might be delaying their return. We consider it a public service because most years at this time the majority of ballots are still sitting around the home with time running out.

This year, however, almost two-thirds of the ballots have already been returned to county elections offices. That’s astounding. But it doesn’t mean a few voters don’t still need a bit of help. Here’s a quick look at places to get more info.

The Spokesman-Review’s Election Center, spokesman.com/elections, has past coverage of the presidential, Washington and Idaho elections, offers head-to-head comparisons of candidates, and features video of debates conducted in partnership with the League of Women Voters.

The State Voters Guide, an online version of the pamphlet mailed to Washington households, is available atsos.wa.gov/elections.

Registered voters can also get a personalized guide for the races and issues on their ballot by going to VoteWA.gov and entering their name and date of birth. The information comes from the candidates, so in most cases it presents them in the most favorable light.

TVW.org is the website for the state’s public access cable channel and has a video voters guide where candidates get a few minutes in front of the camera to make their best pitch. Scroll down on the Election Coverage page and you’ll also find one of the most complete collections of candidate debates, including those sponsored by the league and the Association of Washington Business.

Closing thought

Campaign yard signs are so common right now that most don’t get a second look. But motorists and pedestrians in the neighborhood of High Drive and Grand Boulevard might be scratching their heads over a pair of signs for someone who’s not on the ballot and hasn’t been for a quarter century.

Two Tom Foley for Congress signs are staked in Dave and Mari Clack’s front yard. Dave’s a Republican and Mari’s a Democrat, so for many years they have agreed to disagree on most things political.

He recently found the long-forgotten signs in a storage area and decided to put them up to add a little levity to a campaign season that is sorely lacking it. The signs gets honks and waves from passing motorists.

There’s a deeper meaning behind the signs, too. Clack, who said he shook hands with every president between Franklin Roosevelt and George W. Bush, isn’t happy with either of this year’s presidential options and believes politics has become too rancorous, with drawn-out primaries and farcical debates.

The signs might help Spokane voters recall a different kind of politician, a Democrat who could work with Republicans for the good of his district, he said: “We all live in this country together and we need to get along together.”