COUPEVILLE – Island County voters will be throwing out ballots for the Sept. 14 primary – and it will be legal because of the county’s use of punch-card ballots.
With voters forced to make choices along party lines, the county prepared separate ballot cards for each party’s candidates, plus a fourth card listing only the local issues and nonpartisan contests such as state Supreme Court.
Every voter will receive all four ballots. But they will be able to use only one to vote, and then dump the rest.
Ballots will be color-coded: Democratic Party red, Libertarian Party blue and Republican Party green.
Those who vote absentee should only return one ballot, said Island County Auditor Suzanne Sinclair. If more than one ballot is marked and sent in, none will be counted.
At polling places, voters will be given the set of ballots. They must first select one ballot, then discard the others in a sealed box before entering a booth to vote. When they finish, they will fold that card – to hide the party choice – and put it in the ballot box.
Sinclair suspects that many of the county’s 40,000 registered voters – 70 percent of whom vote by mail – will suffer a bit of sticker shock when they open the envelopes. And turnout may dip, she said, because “people don’t like being limited to one party.”
The cost of producing the different ballots, and efforts to explain the new rules to voters, is costing Island County $72,000 – twice the budgeted price of the primary. State funds will cover most of the additional costs.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
