EVERETT – There’s a place in a backroom across the street from the Snohomish County Courthouse where political partisans assemble to accomplish a nonpartisan goal.
In the simplest terms, that goal is “to make every vote count,” Snohomish County election manager Carolyn Diepenbrock said.
Teams of Democrats and Republicans on Friday marked ballots cast in the Nov. 2 election so they could be counted properly in the final election tally next week. Many of the ballots had been marked improperly and consequently were kicked out of the counting machines.
The election will be certified on Wednesday. Making every vote count is especially important in the nip-and-tuck race for governor.
The counters were recruited by the political parties, but they work for the Snohomish County auditor’s election division. They do it mostly out of dedication to the democratic process, and are paid only $7.50 an hour.
The counting room is a place where there’s work to be done in the name of democracy and no time to debate political philosophies.
“We’re here to do a job and get it done as quickly and as accurately as possible,” said Dianne Yeoman of Mukilteo, a Democrat. She works with Republican Jean McMinn of Arlington.
The two made up one of 14 teams who were working at full speed on Friday as the general election vote counting wound down. Some 5,500 ballots were counted on Friday and added to state totals for the governor’s race.
Yeoman and McMinn will be back on the job today to finish making every valid vote count. Between 2,500 and 3,000 votes also will be counted on Monday, Diepenbrock said.
The focus this week has been on provisional ballots.
A provisional ballot can result when someone goes to the wrong polling place or their name is not the poll book for some reason.
Some voters cast their ballots in other counties, and those were forwarded to Snohomish County for validation and counting, Diepenbrock said. For example, three ballots arrived from Thurston County, where punch-card ballots are used. Diepenbrock had to get a ballot guide from that county, and the votes had to be duplicated on a Snohomish County mail-in ballot before they could be properly counted.
The signatures had to be verified as well.
“We have to do the research,” she said.
Other ballots were simply marked wrong. Instructions at the top of mail-in ballots tell voters to fill in the arrow next to the name of the candidate they want.
It’s surprising how many people fail to follow the instructions, Diepenbrock said.
Some mark an “X” next to the candidates they want, or circle the name. On Friday, McMinn and Yeoman duplicated clearly marked wishes on ballots so they could be run through the counting machines.
Diepenbrock said some people draw a big “X” though the candidate they don’t want. Or at least it appears that way, but it’s hard to tell, and those votes are not counted. Inconsistent methods of marking ballots invalidate the entire ballot, she said.
Some voters write the name of each candidate they choose, even though the name is already printed on the ballot. If that’s consistently done, and the intent of the voter is apparent, the ballot is counted.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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