BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – It was the ghost of elections past.
A jam in a Kitsap County ballot-counting machine on primary election day Sept. 20 caused a miscount of 203 ballots too many, all from Bainbridge Island, according to county Auditor Karen Flynn.
The counting error was discovered during a ballot reconciliation process.
“We had more ballots counted than we had cast,” Flynn said Wednesday.
The miscount did not affect the outcome of any races or ballot issues, Flynn said.
The batch of ballots being counted when the machine broke down came from all 22 Bainbridge precincts, according to elections manager Dolores Gilmore. Ballot counts on Bainbridge races and issues could have been incrementally changed by the miscount, as well as on countywide races and issues appearing on Bainbridge ballots, Flynn said.
The problem is not unusual, Flynn said.
Kitsap Sun
Gifford: Cool weather helps keep fire in check
Cooler temperatures and clouds helped keep a 1,000-acre wildfire near Lake Roosevelt in check on Thursday, a state Department of Natural Resources spokesman said.
The fire was 67 percent contained Thursday night, spokesman Jay Guthrie said.
At its peak Wednesday night, the fire was a threat to about a dozen homes, but all escaped damage, spokeswoman Lynn Kenworthy said.
The fire started Wednesday afternoon along Highway 25 near the landing for the Gifford ferry across Lake Roosevelt, the lake behind Grand Coulee Dam. The fire spread through steep, wooded terrain.
Associated Press
Seattle: Man accused of sinking his own boat
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has indicted a Washington state man following allegations that he deliberately sank his 73-foot fishing boat, then tried to cover up the crime by telling the U.S. Coast Guard he was unaware of the sinking and that someone else may have been on board.
Ahmet Artuner, 56, of Ferndale was named in a five-count indictment returned Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said. The charges include deliberately sinking a vessel, polluting and making false statements that caused the Coast Guard to launch a needless search.
Artuner owned the Junior, which he used to fish for squid off the California coast. In March 2003, the boat sank three miles southwest of Oxnard.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Dorothy Kim said prosecutors did not know what the motive for the sinking was, but she said it may have been cheaper for Artuner to sink the boat than to keep it.
Associated Press
Kingston foot ferry will suspend service
The Kingston-to-Seattle foot ferry will stop running thisevening, when service is suspended for at least nine months to assess financial problems.
Aqua Express, the private company that began the service in January, said it is suspending trips until July 1 because of rising costs – partly due to fuel prices – and low ridership.
The suspension will leave several hundred commuters in search of alternative transportation. State officials haven’t decided whether they want to expand their foot-ferry service beyond the Seattle-to-Vashon run.
Associated Press
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