General election sees high ratios of ‘under votes’ in some returns

The Whitman County general election last week saw a high amount of votes in one category: under votes.

Under votes are logged when a voter fails to vote for a particular office or issue, according to the Washington Secretary of State office. This could be intentional or due to oversight.

On advisories, measures and candidates that were on the county-wide ballot, a total of 5,053 under votes were cast collectively – 2,309 of which belonged to Port Commissioner Tom Kammerzell, who also received 5,504 votes in his uncontested re-election. Additionally, there were 212 write-in votes for his positi...