No Small Stuff (cont.): Unsigned Ballot Could Decide Washington Local Race
[Image courtesy of thediscipleproject]
In civics class, students are often reminded of the power of one vote. That’s truer than ever in Sunnyside, WA where a single ballot has candidates for City Council playing a waiting game. The Yakima Herald Republic has the details:
One man, one vote.
And no signature.
Those with any interest in the Sunnyside City Council’s District 3 race — where a single unsigned and uncounted ballot would tie or settle the primary election — are waiting to learn which two candidates will advance to the general election.
The problem is Yakima County election officials have sent notice to the voter he has less than a week to provide his signature in order to validate his ballot and he still hasn’t responded.
The ballot is especially important because of the closeness of the contest:
Incumbent Don Vlieger has essentially secured his spot on the November ballot with 57 votes. Behind him are challengers Spencer Martin with 56 votes and Victor Ochoa with 55.
If Ochoa ties Martin for second place, the Yakima County Auditor’s Office would initiate a recount of ballots by hand. If that were the case and the recount returned the same results, a little-known county ordinance would require the second-place winner to be chosen by drawing numbers.
“In this situation we would put numbers one through 10 into a hat, both candidates would draw a number and, depending on how they fell in numerical order, the person with the lower number would be moving forward,” Yakima County Elections Manager Kathy Fisher said.
For now, the county has requested a signature and waits for a resolution:
The Auditor’s Office has already contacted the Sunnyside voter by mail requesting he sign his ballot and return it by Aug. 19 if he wishes it to be counted, Fisher said, but has received no response. If the current count holds, it will pit Vlieger and Martin in the general election …
There were 888 ballots mailed in the District 3 race and only 170, about 19 percent, were returned. So far, 169 have been counted, with the unsigned ballot as the lone one to be uncounted.
“One vote really does matter,” Fisher said.
Stay tuned …
[UPDATE: A local TV station has found the voter, who had misplaced the letter he received – he has found it and will presumably be returning his signature soon.]