Ballot snafus continue to plague Whitman County

COLFAX — More than 1,300 Whitman County voters failed to receive their general election ballots in October, ruining County Auditor Sandy Jamison’s hopes for a smooth election cycle.

However, Jamison said her staff is working overtime to ensure that voters get the missing ballots in time for Tuesday’s election.

“I felt like we were doing really well,” Jamison said Wednesday. “We had all our temp workers in place and we were on schedule. But we’ll (soon) be back on schedule.”

A computer error during the switch to a statewide voter registration system caused the problem, she said.

The county previously maintained its own voter database, but converted to Washington’s VoteWA.org system earlier this year. For some reason, an extra digit was added to the addresses of about 1,355 Whitman County voters during the switch-over. As a result, their addresses were rejected when ballots were mailed to voters on Oct. 18.

The Whitman County Elections Office discovered the error.

“We have about 25,000 registered voters in the county,” Jamison said. “We noticed that the mailing number was low compared to what we had registered. There was no way to compare the old database with the new database, so we contacted the state.”

The Washington Secretary of State’s office identified the problem Monday afternoon, Jamison said. Now that it’s been identified and corrected, her staff is working overtime to get replacement ballots in the mail by today. That should still give people time to vote in Tuesday’s election.

Whitman County has a long history of election errors, including repeat instances in which incorrect ballots were printed and mailed to voters or mailed to the wrong ward or district.

Jamison, who was elected last year, had hoped that the conversion to the VoteWA.org system would relegate such problems to the past.

“The goal is to have all 39 counties on the same software platform, so you can look up a voter and find them regardless of what county they live in,” she said. “That way, if you used to live in Yakima and moved to Pullman, you’ll get the Pullman ballot.”

The system only allows one ballot to be mailed per voter, based on the address that’s on file. That’s why it’s important for voters to update their address information.

Jamison noted that this is the first general election in which Whitman County has relied on the new system.

“We used it during the (August) primary, and there weren’t any problems,” she said. “I thought we were on a roll – (but) we didn’t mail ballots everywhere in the county during the primary.”

Ballots for Tuesday’s general election must be mailed before 5 p.m., or deposited in a drop box or turned in at the county elections office by 8 p.m.

Spence may be contacted at bspence@lmtribune.com or (208) 791-9168.