County's Public Lands recount 100% accurate

By Loyal Baker

DAYTON–All of the Primary Electon ballots recounted by hand by Columbia County Auditor's Office elections officials tallied with the initial machine count, according to Auditor Will Hutchens.

The statewide hand recount was ordered by the Secretary of State when two Commissioner of Public Lands candidates vying for the second of Washington's "top two" primary system, Democrat Dave Upthegrove and Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson, were separated by 51 votes, a statistical dead heat out of 1.9 million votes cast.

The Columbia County recount of the Commissioner of Public Lands race started promptly at 9 a.m. on Monday, August 26, said Hutchens, who oversaw the recount conducted by Elections Supervisor Cathy Abel and Deputy Auditor Jann Manwell, and observed by three community members.

"We were pleased that every batch the team counted matched the original results exactly," Hutchens commented. "We expected that, but it's still nice to have the confirmation that our processes are accurate.

"Cathy and Jann did a great job," Hutchens added. "Their professionalism was evident as they stayed focused for several hours of a very tedious job."

The recount included the 1,349 accepted ballots that the County received for the August 6 Primary. During the election, the ballots had been scanned in 32 separate batches, and for the recount, each of the batches was counted separately, so the results could be compared to the original ones.

After unsealing the box where the ballots were stored, Hutchens handed out one batch at a time to the counting team. Abel and Manwell sorted the ballots into ten piles: one for each of the seven candidates, one for write-ins, one for undervotes (no candidate selected), and one for overvotes (more than one candidate selected). They independently counted each pile twice, recording their counts on a tally sheet.

After they finished counting the entire batch, they compared their results. If the results matched, they gave their tallies to Hutchens, who compared the vote totals with the official results. The counting team took several breaks between batches over the course of the day to help with concentration.

The recount finished about 2 p.m., and it confirmed the original results. Every batch the team counted exactly matched the original results. Of the 1,349 ballots counted, 1,235 had votes for one of the candidates, one vote was for a write-in candidate, and one hundred thirteen were blank.

The results will be certified by the Canvassing Board on Tuesday, September 3, at 2 p.m. at the Elections office, 311 E Main, Suite C.

-Hutchens contributed to this story.