Whitman County officials reviewed more than 300 questionable ballots this week prior to certifying the official election results today, rejecting 172 of the ballots over late postmarks, mismatched signatures or other issues.
The canvassing board — comprised of Auditor Sandy Jamison, Prosecutor Denis Tracy and County Commissioner Art Swannack — inspected and discussed the problematic ballots Monday morning during a public meeting in Colfax.
Some voters sent in old ballots from previous elections, mailed new ballots in old return envelopes, put multiple ballots in the same envelope or otherwise mixed up ballot materials. One ballot came back from family members noting the person had died. One voter appeared to send back two ballots from different counties.
“There’s more variety in this election than I’ve seen for a while of ways to mess up your ballot,” Swannack said. “I haven’t seen as many like that in past elections.”
Upon review, the board accepted 145 of the questionable ballots after judging whether signatures or other identifying documentation appeared valid. See a certified tally of those ballots here.
Election supervisor Mish Stanley explained election staff had sent multiple letters and made follow-up phone calls to voters with problematic ballots to “cure” their ballots.
“We actually had quite a few who have returned letters,” she said, “and we were able to get them counted.”
Election staff brought about 317 problematic ballots before the canvassing board for review. The board rejected all 102 ballots with late postmarks. Of the 175 ballots with questionable signatures, 42 ballots were eventually rejected. The board rejected 9 of 18 ballots with missing signatures.
Board members sat around a conference table and compared ballot signatures to those on file for each voter’s registration. They passed each questionable signature around and voted on whether they appeared to match or not.
“Criminy,” Swannack noted of one ballot. “That’s my cousin.”
“Uh oh,” Jamison responded with a chuckle.
Election staff noted some voters had multiple signatures on file after previous confirmations of inconsistent signatures.
“It would be nice if people scribbled the same way when they scribbled,” Swannack said.
“Some do scribble the exact same way,” Stanley replied. “Some do not.”
“If I wasn’t on the canvas board,” Tracy added, “I think I would fail this every time. My ballot would be rejected.”
Election staff noted that, in addition to late postmarks, some voters had stopped by polling locations after voting closed at 8 p.m. Election Day. One person tried to drop off their ballot at 8:03 p.m. Others missed by 10 or 15 minutes. One person tried to shove their ballot into a locked drop box the next day.
“They jammed it in the back and we found it,” Stanley said.
Another 19 ballots were disqualified for miscellaneous issues. The board spent several minutes discussing a Grant County ballot that was sent to them after the voter reportedly switched their registration to Whitman County. Election staff explained it appeared the person had submitted two ballots.
“If you vote twice with intent to vote twice, that’s a crime,” Tracy told the board. “Hard to say whether this person intended to vote twice. … I’ve seen people do silly things. We’ve seen a number of silly things here today.”
Tracy told election staff they could prepare a report on the situation for referral to the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office for investigation, but the double vote was likely a misunderstanding.
“Nobody ever intends to vote twice,” he said. “Contrary to myth there’s not a lot of extra voting out there.”
The board asked election staff to see what other information they could find on when the conflicting ballots were both submitted. The board could review the information today when certifying the final results.
Final election results included 10,737 counted ballots for a voter turnout of 44.4 percent. Stanley told the board they had seen fewer mismatched signatures or problematic ballots this year, compared to last year’s election. The board rejected nearly 300 ballots during last year’s canvas board review.
“That was a longer day,” she said.
“I bet next year,” Tracy chimed in, “will be even more.”