Concern over powdered ballot has sweet end for vote counters

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, November 8, 2001

Herald staff

EVERETT — Was it Krispy Kreme or anthrax on that absentee ballot?

It seems it was just a little doughnut residue.

But Snohomish County elections staff got a start Tuesday night when a staff member handling a mail-in ballot came across something unusual on the outside of the envelope, sent in by an Everett voter.

The staff was cautioned to be on the lookout for anything strange in the aftermath of the national anthrax scare. And so they followed procedures when a white substance was spotted on the envelope.

The requisite call to 911 was made, Auditor Bob Terwilliger said. He was told to isolate staff members who came into contact with the envelope and not handle it.

City police officers showed up 90 minutes later, examined the material on the envelope and judged that it wasn’t anything dangerous, Terwilliger said.

The incident didn’t slow the ballot-counting process, he added.

The ballot in question was stored in a zipped bag and later was examined under a microscope, Terwilliger said. The examination showed that the questioned substance was crystalline, very much like sugar.

Was it consistent with a glazed Krispy Kreme, the doughnut company that just opened a store in Issaquah a couple of weeks ago?

"Yeah, something like that," Terwilliger said "Or maybe a Dunkin’ Donuts. I don’t know which."