OLYMPIA — The elections office in Franklin County has sent replacement ballots to about 75 voters who say they never received one, and state Republicans alleged Tuesday that they know of at least one voter who received a replacement ballot for the wrong legislative district.
Franklin County Auditor Zona Lenhart said all voters in the county will receive postcards Tuesday telling them to call her office if they haven’t received their ballot yet or if they received a damaged ballot. She said her office hasn’t received any phone calls from voters saying their replacement ballot was wrong.
Lenhart says that all of the more than 25,000 ballots sent to voters were properly printed and brought to the post office, but “from there we don’t know what happened” to the missing ballots.
She said she has started calling all of the voters who originally reported not receiving ballots, and she said that of the six she has talked to so far, four ultimately received their original as well as a replacement.
State Republicans held a conference call Tuesday morning alleging that Lenhart delayed sending out notices to voters and only did so at their prompting, something Lenhart disputes.
She said that once her office became aware of the problem, she talked with the county prosecutor and decided to send out the notices.
“We want to be ahead of the game, not behind the game,” she said.
State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser and several state Republican lawmakers expressed concern for a potential repeat of the 2004 governor’s race, in which Republican Dino Rossi lost to Gov. Chris Gregoire after two recounts. Rossi is on the ballot again this year, seeking to oust Democratic incumbent Sen. Patty Murray.
“It wasn’t very long ago that a small number of ballots like this had statewide implication,” said Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville.
Lenhart, a Democrat who’s running for re-election as county auditor, said she doesn’t understand why Republicans didn’t include her on the conference call.
“It’s elections and it’s politics,” she said. “It’s unfortunate.”
Esser said Franklin is the only county Republicans have received complaints about.
“We’re not going out and making complaints against Democratic county auditors,” he said. “This is all based on the facts. The fact is a lot of people didn’t receive their ballots.”
State Elections Director Nick Handy said that while Franklin County’s replacement numbers are larger than normal, “every county has a certain number of replacement ballots.”
“It’s just part of the process,” he said.
Lenhart said about 25,324 ballots were sent to voters earlier this month, and as of Monday, 5,529 completed ballots have been sent back in advance of the Nov. 2 election.
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