Pierce County auditor changes ballot rules

AARON CORVIN; The News Tribune
Last d: April 9th, 2005 02:35 AM
Pierce County?s elections chief plans to adopt new measures to safeguard local elections following this week?s discovery of 14 ballots that were not counted in the disputed November election.

Election workers came across the ballots while sorting through tens of thousands of envelopes. They were working to comply with a public-records request stemming from the contested governor?s race.

County Auditor Pat McCarthy, who oversees the county?s election system, said, ?I take full and total responsibility for this situation occurring. I can assure you, to the best of our ability, that this will never, ever happen again in Pierce County.?

To that end, McCarthy said, she expects to make three changes to avoid overlooking ballots as they are being processed:

 ? Color-coding the secrecy envelopes in which voters seal their ballots so election workers can?t miss them as they separate the secrecy envelopes from the outer envelopes, and process ballots.

 ? Using outer envelopes that have punch-holes in them so election workers can clearly see whether there are still any ballots inside them.

 ? Requiring a third inspection of the outer envelopes to ensure ballots have been properly separated and processed. McCarthy?s office uses a two-step process to go through the outer envelopes. ?We would just check them one more time,? she said.

Pierce County?s discovery of the overlooked ballots added another wrinkle to the contested governor?s race in which Democrat Christine Gregoire lost the first two counts to Republican Dino Rossi but won the third and final count by 129 votes.

The problems in Pierce County have been overshadowed by voting irregularities in King County, which reported finding 94 uncounted ballots while complying with a similar public-records request. Some Republican King County Council members have called for the resignation of elections director Dean Logan as well as a federal investigation. Democrats have proposed an independent audit of the county?s elections office, and King County Executive Ron Sims has expressed support for Logan.

McCarthy isn?t facing the same kind of outrage in Pierce County.

On Monday, McCarthy announced that ?a small number? of ballots were found while the county complied with a request by the state Democratic Party.

The party asked for photocopies of envelopes, poll books and other documents showing the names of 39 people whom Republicans have said were recorded as having voted in November even though they were either dead or ineligible because of felony criminal records.

On Friday, she said workers completed their work sifting through 254,550 envelopes and found 14 ballots inside their secrecy envelopes.

McCarthy said the 14 ballots are still inside their secrecy envelopes, so no one knows whose ballots they are or how they voted.

Since the election has been certified, the newly discovered ballots have been secured in a container as Pierce County awaits a judge?s ruling on Rossi?s challenge to the results of the governor?s race.

    
McCarthy said she?s not sure what impact, if any, the 14 ballots would have on the contested governor?s race.

?It?s important to note that there wasn?t any race that was decided by 14 votes in Pierce County,? she said.

Nevertheless, McCarthy added, she wants every vote counted.

?We?re just going to have to tighten it up more, and I think that?s what this election has shown us ? the areas where we need to tighten up controls,? she said. ?We want to start building voter confidence back up.?