Primary election voters who fail to vote for candidates or issues because of confusion over the new balloting system cannot recast their ballots, the Clallam County election board ruled Monday.
The canvassing board’s advice to voters: Read the instructions carefully before enclosing your ballot in the envelope and returning it to the Auditor’s Office.
Once you’ve sealed the envelope, you can’t reopen it without voiding your vote.
The three-member Clallam County election canvassing board convened an emergency meeting Monday afternoon at the request of County Auditor Cathleen McKeown.
McKeown said the meeting was prompted by about 10 phone calls her office received from Sequim-area voters who did not read the Sept. 14 primary ballot instructions.
The ballot materials were mailed to all registered voters in the county last week.
The complainants said they failed to cast votes for either the nonpartisan judge races or the Fire District No. 3 levy because of the items’ positions on the color-coded partisan ballots.
Color-coded ballots
Four color-coded ballots — each representing three political parties and a nonpartisan ballot — were given to voters.
Each voter must choose one punchcard ballot on which to cast all votes and toss the other three ballots.
“People are confused and frustrated,” McKeown told her fellow canvassing board members, County Commissioner Steve Tharinger, D-Dungeness, and Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly, R-Port Angeles.
McKeown, whose office is nonpartisan, said callers have argued “that we’re taking away their constitutional right” to vote.
Ironically, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state’s former open primary — allowing voting across party lines — was unconstitutional because, it said, political parties have the sole right to pick their candidates for the general election.
One voting couple told her that they burned their ballots rather than vote in the new primary system.
