If you haven’t received your ballot in the mail for Tuesday’s general election by now, you won’t.
Request a replacement ballot from the Clallam County Auditor’s office in the courthouse at 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
All the ballots that the Tacoma Postal Service Center received for Clallam County have been mailed, said Patty Rosand, Clallam County auditor.
The office mailed 45,666 ballots on Oct. 15.
Rosand figures that between 150 and 200 ballots will need to be replaced.
In a presidential election, replacing some 100 to 150 ballots because they have been lost or inadvertently destroyed is not unusual, she said.
Strange concentration
“What’s strange is the concentration of ballots” — 46 requests for replacement ballots as of Wednesday — in one area of the county.
The concentration of missing ballots is in two precincts: the Freshwater Bay precinct and the Madison Creek precinct.
“I’ve phoned voters around them, and they say they have theirs,” Rosand said.
“I’m trying to find a pattern … They don’t appear to all be in one mail tray.”
Rosand said she doesn’t suspect that the ballots were stolen, and that she doesn’t know what happened to them.
“There’s only so much you can do, and then you start replacing them,” she said.
Rosand said K&H Printers in Everett, which printed the ballots, told her that all the ballots were taken to the Tacoma distribution center on Oct. 15 as scheduled.
Ernie Swanson, U.S. Postal Service spokesman, said the Postal Service has no idea why the ballots didn’t make it to the proper mailboxes.
Clallam County is the only county he is aware of to have reported a concentration of missing ballots.
Donna Eldridge, Jefferson County auditor, said her office mailed the county’s 22,140 ballots directly to the voters through the local post office.
Rosand said Clallam County couldn’t mail the ballots locally because they were printed in Everett.
Safeguards
Rosand said that the office ensures that only one ballot per voter is legitimate.
“When a person requests a replacement ballot, we cancel the serial number on the original ballot,” she said.
If a replacement is never requested, the office wouldn’t know it hadn’t been delivered, Rosand said.
But all signatures are checked, and if the ballot signature doesn’t match the signature on the voter registration, the voter is notified.
“We check the signatures on every ballot that comes in against the voter’s original signature when they registered to vote.
“If it does not match the signature, the voter receives a letter saying that we have received a ballot with a signature that does not appear to be yours.”
The voter is sent an affidavit to sign, and that signature is checked against the ballot.
If it doesn’t match, then the ballot is rejected and sent to the canvassing board.
The canvassing board is made up of the prosecuting attorney, the chairman of the county board of commissioners –or the commissioner’s designee, which would be another commissioner — and the auditor.
“Any ballot that is rejected has to go before the canvassing board,” Rosand said, adding that none are thrown away.
“In a federal election, we hold onto everything for 22 months.”
If a ballot doesn’t pass muster, then the voter is notified that it doesn’t count.
If a ballot has been stolen, there’s no way to find the thief, Rosand said.
“There’s no way to trace it if they forged your signature.”
Voters who have not received ballots or who need other information can call the office at 360-417-2222.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
