Elections office encounters sliced off ballots in primary

The elections office is no stranger to seeing oddities on ballots. It has seen votes for Mickey Mouse and Santa Claus, as well as comments about particular candidates and statements about political parties. A new oddity was seen during this month's primary election in Whitman County: sliced off ballots.

County Commissioner Art Swannack told the other commissioners last week that the canvass board had encountered ballots that had been sent in, but had either the bottom third or bottom two-thirds cut off.

“It was a clean cut,” said Swannack. “It wasn't like it was all ripped up, and I don't know if it was intentional or what. I guess it could have been accidentally done with a letter opener, but I don't know.”

The ballots were filled out, and they were signed. The problem, though, was that the portion of the ballots that had been cut off had the precinct numbers for the voter. Without the precinct information, the ballots could not be run through the tabulation machine.

“I don't know if it was a political statement or what,” Swannack told the commissioners.

Without the precinct information, it was uncertain if the ballots could be counted.

“We had to ask the Secretary of State office if they were a valid vote,” said Swannack.

The state office came back with the answer that the county canvass board could determine that. Swannack said the board looked at the appropriate rules and applicable state law and ultimately decided to try to figure which precincts the ballots belonged in.

“We knew they were all Pullman ones,” he said.

This was known because of the races on the ballots, which include city council and school board races. The school board race alone drew voters from 31 precincts. The presence of a city council race on the same ballot as the school board race could help to narrow it down, but ultimately, it is uncertain if the votes were attributed to the right precinct.

“We could narrow it down, but because we didn't have a 100 percent voter turnout, potentially attributing these to the wrong precinct didn't make any precinct over 100 percent,” said Swannack.

The votes counted, and whether or not they were attributed to the right precinct, they were attributed to the appropriate candidates.

“We were just trying to make sure the citizens' votes counted if at all possible,” said Swannack.