Snohomish County has canceled the voter registration of Greg Stephens, an independent candidate who ran for the Snohomish County Council while living in King County.
County Auditor Bob Terwilliger said he ordered Stephens’ voter card canceled after a neighbor proved that Stephens doesn’t really live on the Maltby property he has owned since 1988.
Instead, Stephens mostly lives with his longtime girlfriend in an apartment across the county line in Bothell. His mail is delivered to the Maltby property, he said.
Had the challenge come before the election and the same ruling been made by Terwilliger, a lawsuit could have been filed to remove Stephens from the ballot.
However, canceling Stephens’ voter registration after the election was certified will not affect the outcome, Terwilliger said.
Democrat Dave Somers defeated incumbent Republican Jeff Sax in the November general election. Stephens ran as an independent in the three-way race.
An angry Sax didn’t learn of the decision until Friday. He wants an investigation. Too many people, including some in his own party, suspected something amiss but did nothing, he said.
“The fact that Greg Stephens was never a legal voter in this election calls into question whether this election was a valid election,” Sax said. “If I’d had this information earlier, I could at that point have contested the election.”
Sax viewed Stephens as the spoiler in the race. When the final results were tallied, Sax trailed Somers by 2,109 votes. Stephens received 2,852 votes.
For Sax to have closed the gap with Somers, he would have had to snag three-fourths of the votes cast for Stephens.
Sax’s campaign spent $234,000, and a political action committee made up of developers spent another $149,000 in support of Sax.
Stephens claimed a 20-year history in Maltby, and is an activist seeking cityhood for the area.
“I still live at that address, I just haven’t been spending as many nights there of late because it’s been cold,” Stephens said. The roof needs repairs, and the county halted work in 2003 for lack of permits, he said.
“Everything I have in the world has to do with that place,” Stephens said. “That was my home, I still consider it my home, and that’s where my roots were for nearly 20 years. I did not feel I was misleading the public.”
The challenge to his voter registration amounts to a vengeful feud with neighbors who supported Sax, he said.
The challenge didn’t come until Nov. 14, a week after the election.
The case against Stephens was built largely on photographs of his run-down property. They came from Ruby Mohar – a Republican poll worker, Stephens’ neighbor and Sax supporter.
Stephens only collected his mail at the property, she said. Meanwhile, her daughter lives at the same Bothell apartment complex where Stephens has been living.
Sax said he is exploring whether violations of civil law, criminal statutes and the county’s ethics code may have been committed by Stephens, Terwilliger and others.
“We need an investigation into the entire election system in this county,” he said. “Bob Terwilliger is an out-and-out flaming liberal Democrat. To say he runs a straightforward legitimate elections office is not a true statement.”
Stephens filed to run July 29 and listed his Maltby address. Election workers checked voter registration rolls, Terwilliger said.
He added there was no reason to believe anything was wrong, and he had no authority to investigate anyway.
“This office followed the law,” Terwilliger said. “Many people arguably had this information and didn’t do anything with it. No one ever called me or e-mailed me to tell me that we had allowed a candidate to run who was ineligible to run.”
State elections director Nick Handy said the state doesn’t “follow every voter home to confirm they live where they say they live.”
Rumors that Stephens lived in King County surfaced during the election. Sax said he had suspicions in August.
Sax said many others in the community, as well as members of the Republican Party, had the information but didn’t act.
Sax said he did nothing because he didn’t want his inquiry perceived as dirty politics.
“There is absolute disappointment,” he said of his party’s inaction. “We’re as much at fault as the Democrats and Greg Stephens are at fault because we didn’t do our due diligence.”
Sax said he is especially upset over how quietly Terwilliger handled the inquiry. The auditor heard the challenge Dec. 2. He ordered Stephens removed from the voting rolls Dec. 8. Word didn’t reach Sax until Friday.
Sax went straight to Sheriff Rick Bart and prosecuting attorney Janice Ellis. Ellis sent a letter to the state Attorney General’s Office, asking it to investigate to sidestep any perceived conflict of interest should Sax bring a formal complaint.
Somers said any misdeeds are Stephens’ burden.
“I heard rumors he wasn’t living in the district. I heard that months ago, but obviously somebody had to investigate,” Somers said. “If he (Stephens) knew he wasn’t living in the district, he shouldn’t have run.
“I assume he felt he was doing the right thing,” he said. “It would be a major breach in the public trust if he did it intentionally.”
Stephens said state law doesn’t dictate where a candidate must sleep, but he isn’t planning an appeal.
Since spring, he has stayed with his girlfriend while recovering from surgeries and health problems. Health problems also forced his retirement from a career driving ambulances, a job that used to keep him away on long shifts, he said.
Stephens began renting his 1932-vintage Maltby house in 1986 and bought it in 1988. He registered as a voter there in 1991. He’s now planning to sell the property.
“Since I’m moving anyway, they’re getting their pound of flesh,” Stephens said.
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
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