With the help of a crumb, incumbent John Calhoun won the Port of Port Angeles District 3 commission race Thursday morning after a hand recount was completed.
Calhoun, who was elected to his second, six-year term, defeated his challenger, Brad Collins, by 22 votes.
One vote was added to Calhoun’s lead during the recount when a vote for Collins was disqualified because it was marked by a food crumb, said Clallam County Auditor Patty Rosand.
The small crumb was placed just in the right spot for the vote-counting machine to read it as a vote.
“Upon inspection,” said a slightly amused Rosand, “it fell off the ballot.”
First crumb counted
Rosand said it isn’t rare for ballots to be returned with something other than pencil or pen marks — coffee and other food stains have also been seen — but this was the first time that the Clallam County Auditor’s Office has come across a morsel or stain that counted as a vote.
She added that voters should keep their ballots clean so that they are not misread by the machine.
The recount solidified the final vote tally for the port race.
Calhoun received 9,295 votes, or 50.06 percent, and Collins had 9,273 votes, or 49.94 percent.
Along with the crummy ballot, two other votes were changed.
One added a vote for Calhoun and the other took one away from the port commission president, so they did not affect the final vote count, Rosand said.
The former was marked appropriately, but too lightly for the machine to pick it up, and the other wasn’t fully marked, she said the county Canvassing Board concluded.
The Canvassing Board is made up of Rosand, Clallam County Prosecutor Deb Kelly and county commissioner Mike Doherty. Deputy Prosecutor Doug Jensen stood in for Kelly during the recount, Rosand said.
The recount began Wednesday and was held in the basement of the Clallam County Courthouse.
The port contest was the sole race to have a recount in the Nov. 3 general election.
Collins disappointed
A disappointed Collins said he was expecting the recount to change more of the ballots read by the machine as “under votes,” where voters returned ballots without making a selection in the port race.
The votes taken away from Collins and Calhoun were both considered “under votes” after they were corrected.
In total, there were 7,121 returned ballots that did not contain a vote for either candidate.
“I was expecting there to be some,” Collins said, “but there was hardly any.”
Collins, a former city of Port Angeles community development director and the current deputy director at Serenity House of Clallam County, said that even though he didn’t win, he was still proud of the campaign because it brought a lot of issues to the forefront, such as the creation of the Port Angeles Harbor-Works Development Authority.
“Well, I’m pretty happy with how the campaign went,” he said. “I think we did get issues out to people.
“The fact I was running against an incumbent who spent a lot more money with a lot of vested interest in this port, we held our own.”
Collins, a Port Angeles resident, used the creation of Harbor-Works, which he was critical of, as a major campaign issue.
The public development authority was created in May 2008 by the city of Port Angeles with support from the port to acquire and redevelop Rayonier Inc.’s former mill site and assist in the environmental cleanup of the 75-acre parcel.
The port and the city are both funding Harbor-Works, and Collins said that money would be better spent on jobs that can be created sooner elsewhere than with the Rayonier property.
Calhoun learned humility
Calhoun, a Forks area resident, said the close election has taught him a few lessons, including “humility.”
He said the race was close at least in part due to the debate over Harbor-Works, but his support for the public development authority remains unchanged.
“That was the one issue we had different opinions on,” Calhoun said.
“But I haven’t changed my opinion on that . . . because of the election.
“I feel more strongly than ever that we need to gain control of that site, so the community is in control of what happens on that site.”
In response to the high number of voters who didn’t participate in the port race, Calhoun said the port needs to do a better job informing the public of what its purpose is and what exactly it does.
“I’m concerned that there are so few people who know enough about the port race willing to vote,” he said.
“So that teaches us that maybe we need to do a better job at the port explaining our situation.”
Calhoun said the port’s 2010 budget does include a new marketing position intended to help with public outreach.
As for goals for his next six-year term, Calhoun said he wants the port to create 1,000 more jobs and continue to collaborate with the city and Clallam County to promote economic development.
The next elections in Clallam County will be in February for school levies in the Sequim and Cape Flattery school districts.
Ballots will be mailed Jan. 20.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
