PORT TOWNSEND – The Jefferson County Auditor’s Office made mistakes in certifying the petition that would have put Port Townsend’s form of government to voters in the Nov. 6 general election.
Auditor Donna Eldridge admits that.
But how did it happen?
“Election law is just all over the board and inconsistent,” said the auditor, a Republican.
“This office likes to do its job with 100 percent accuracy. We do strive for that, but we didn’t quite meet that bar because of our interpretation of election law. We did do what we thought was right.”
She said Wednesday that she has calls into the Secretary of State’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office to clarify some of the mistakes an attorney hired by the city has alleged her office made.
One issue is that seven people who signed the petition twice were counted for one of their signatures.
It’s been alleged that this violated state law, and that all of the signatures, even the first one should not have counted.
Eldridge said that on state petitions, when signatures are duplicated, one of them counts, which is why her office counted them.
When someone signs a city petition more than once, all of the signatures are invalidated, even the first one.
“I think what needs to happen is we need to go to the state Legislature to have consistency,” Eldridge said.
