Busy Election Season for Observers
By Edri Geiger
Election Observers Chair
League Election Observers’ very busy General Election schedule started mid-October and will continue through mid-December. Full weeks of observation also extended into three Saturdays and two very late evenings. Election Day stretched from 8 a.m.-11:30 p.m. until the last voter completed his ballot and turned it in. (Per state law, voters can vote if they start the process of registering or are in line to vote in person by 8 p.m. on election night.)
On Nov. 26, the Canvass Board -- a county councilor, a county prosecutor and County Auditor Greg Kimsey -- met to certify the General Election results and also mandated recounts for two races, as determined by state law, RCW 29A.64.021.
County Council #4 seat candidates Joe Zimmerman and Matt Little signed an agreement to do a machine count, not a hand count even though Little was only 49 votes ahead of Zimmerman. State law requires a mandatory manual recount if the difference between the top two candidates is less than 150 votes and also less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the total votes. However, a much less expensive machine recount can be done if both candidates agree.
Starting Wednesday, Dec. 4, through Friday, Dec. 6, the machine recount will this be for this seat.
The18th Legislative District Senate race between Adrian Cortes and Brad Benton had Cortes ahead by 172 votes, 72 more than the threshold for a mandatory hand count. This race will be the second machine recount starting Monday, Dec. 9. A machine recount is done if the difference between the top two candidates is less than 2,000 votes and also less than one-half of 1 percent of the total votes cast.
The recount in this race is expected to be completed Wednesday, Dec. 11.
At the same time, there will be another signature verification observation of the petition regarding street and development standards. Elections predicts it will take about two weeks, completed no later than Dec. 20. Knowing the time commitment it will take, I am already replacing my Thanksgiving decorations with my Christmas ones. (Trees are up, I just have not lit them yet!)
I am not the only one who really appreciates all the time put in by our League observers. League president Nancy Halvorson had emailed Kimsey, who as auditor oversees elections in our county, to let him know how much our organization appreciates Elections’ work.
He replied, saying, “I’m writing to again tell you that we greatly appreciate your efforts to have observers present while ballots are being processed. The presence of observers is a very important part of the transparency and accountability of the election administration process that we are strongly committed to.”