Election certified: 86% turnout

COLFAX – The Nov. 3 election is officially signed, sealed and delivered. Whitman County Auditor Sandy Jamison certified the election Nov. 24 after a final counting of ballots and the Nov. 23 meeting of the Canvassing Board.

Of the 24,748 registered voters in Whitman County’s 69 precincts, 21,293 ballots were counted, making voter turnout 86.04%.

The three-member Canvassing Board meet Nov. 23 to examine questionable ballots and determine if they met criteria to be counted. The board is composed of Jamison, County Prosecutor Denis Tracy and the county commission chairman, which is currently Michael Largent.

The board rejected all 502 ballots returned undeliverable by the Post Office, including 10 returned due to the voter being deceased. Ten of the 26 absentee ballots returned without voter’s signature were rejected, the other 16 were cured. Fifteen absentee ballots were rejected for being post marked too late. More than half of the 403 absentee ballots with questionable signatures were accepted while 139 were rejected.

The county elections office issued 403 ballots to Uniformed and Overseas Absentee voters; 141 were returned and only one rejected.

The Canvassing Board inspected 207 ballots for “misc.” reasons and accepted 123. Jamison was unavailable Friday to explain what was included in the miscellaneous category.