By Jim Haley
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Libertarian candidates did quite well. So did write-in candidates around the county.
But it’s likely the Democrats, Republicans and usual nonpartisan candidates for city council positions will fare a lot better when the voting count starts for real Tuesday night.
Tuesday is the general election, and up to 60 percent of the county’s 323,000 registered voters are expected to go to the polls or cast mail-in absentee ballots to decide issues in some 275 possible ballot configurations.
Issues include everything from a Northshore area park and recreation measure for an adult day center to picking choices for three Snohomish County Council spots and a couple of hotly contested state legislative races.
But county election officials were in a room Friday hovering over eight optical scanning vote-counting machines performing a state-required test of the logic and accuracy of the equipment.
About 2,500 test ballots were put into and spit out of the machines to determine if the count measured up exactly to the ballots that were filled out in advance.
The county elections people were cheating. They knew what the results should be. And when the numbers were tallied, that’s exactly the way they turned out.
The upshot: The equipment works fine.
Snohomish County Auditor Bob Terwilliger said he likes to go beyond the requirements of the law, testing the equipment again Tuesday morning and again in a week or two after the counting is done.
"We want the public to understand we take this seriously," Terwilliger said.
The test was witnessed by representatives of political parties and the secretary of state’s office.
There are about 275 possible ballot variations with all the districts, which overlap many of the voting precincts, elections manager Scott Konopasek said. All those ballot styles were tested.
In addition, the test included "under votes," where no marks were made on ballots, and "over votes," where more than one person’s name was marked in a single race.
It’s also a state requirement that the machines be maintained, tested and calibrated since the September primary election, Terwilliger said.
If Florida had a similar law in place a year ago, the state might not have had so many problems with credibility, Terwilliger said.
Part of the problem with the punch system was that some machines had not been cleaned. People had trouble punching out slots because machines had filled up with residue of the punches, infamous chads that were discussed at length in last year’s presidential election.
As of Friday, close to 40,000 absentee ballots had been returned to the auditor’s office. Konopasek hopes to have about 80,000 in hand to count in the initial run that is tabulated shortly after polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
All those that are in hand today will be in that mix. Those that trickle in during the week will be counted Friday, Konopasek said.
Secretary of State Sam Reed has predicted a statewide 53 percent turnout, but Konopasek hopes the Snohomish County total will be closer to 60 percent.
You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447
or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.
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