Reissued ballots

COLFAX — The Whitman County Auditor’s Office released Thursday, Nov. 2, that 5,000 new ballots for Tuesday’s election were mailed out to voters in rural precincts and wards 1 and 2 in Pullman who had received ballots for the wrong voting precinct.

Reports said the error was a sorting error by the county’s ballot distribution vendor.

“We realize this creates an inconvenience for the voting public, but it’s important our election counts every vote from this proper jurisdiction,” said Whitman County Auditor Sandy Jamison, noting that recognizing the vendor’s error early, they have been able to correct the problem and fulfill their duty to administer a fair and accurate election.

Jamison told the Gazette on Tuesday, Nov. 7, that the ballots were being treated like any other ballot during the count. “They will be counted within the two-and-a-half week process,” she said, noting that they’d be counted within the time frame, and it couldn’t be guaranteed they’d finish the count by Wednesday, Nov. 8.

The auditor’s office reported that ballots assigned to the wrong precinct that were returned had been held back still in their signed and sealed envelopes.

The Auditor’s Office released that if the reissued ballots weren’t received by Nov. 7, the voter’s original ballot would be partially tabulated, and election officials would tally those ballots to ensure only the races and propositions relevant to the voter’s correct precinct were counted.