By Noah Haglund Herald Writer
EVERETT — Ballots mailed to nearly 800 Snohomish County voters last week mistakenly left off an oddball congressional race to send a U.S. representative to Washington, DC, for less than a month.
The county Auditor’s Office planned to mail corrected ballots Thursday, along with an explanation.
“We do have 789 voters out there who are entitled to vote on the short-term race, but it’s not on their ballot,” Auditor Carolyn Weikel said.
A voter on Tuesday brought the issue to the attention of Weikel’s staff.
The error affects the old 1st District, not any of the full two-year congressional terms on the ballot. The problem is isolated to four new precincts created as part of last year’s redistricting process: two in Everett’s Silver Lake area, one in north Lynnwood and one in Maltby.
County elections staff plan to separate out ballots for those areas to make sure all get counted and none get counted more than once, Weikel said.
The old 1st District runs from south Snohomish County west through King County into Kitsap County. It includes Mukilteo, Edmonds, Lynnwood and part of Monroe.
Redistricting has divided those areas among three districts, including a new 1st District that stretches from Kirkland to Bellingham.
Former U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., had been in that seat until resigning earlier this year to run for governor against Republican state Attorney General Rob McKenna.
Eleven candidates are competing to serve out the final month of Inslee’s old job. The top two finishers in the Aug. 7 primary advance to the November general election.
Those seeking the short term are: Republicans John Koster of Arlington and Steven Gerdes of Lynnwood; and Democrats Darcy Burner of Carnation; Suzan DelBene of Medina; Laura Ruderman of Kirkland; Darshan Rauniyar of Bothell; Brian Sullivan of Mukilteo; Byron Holcomb of Bainbridge Island; Brian Berry of Kenmore; and Ruth Morrison of Lynnwood. The lone independent is Bob Champion of Mukilteo.
All told, Snohomish County has mailed out more than 400,000 primary ballots.
For questions, call the Auditor’s Office Elections Division at 425-388-3444.
