PORT ANGELES — Sequim City Councilman Ted Miller is assured a seat on the Clallam County Charter Review Commission after a recount of Nov. 4 general election ballots found that he bested Jerry Sinn by 28 votes.
The recount, completed Friday, found that Miller, 68, won 3,386 votes, or 8.73 percent, to the 3,358 votes or 8.66 percent garnered by Sinn, 72, who is chairman of the steering committee for FourC, or Concerned Citizens of Clallam County.
That was only one vote difference from the results tallied before the recount of the Nov. 4 general election, in which Sinn was behind by 29 votes.
“I was relieved,” Miller said after he heard the news.
“I expected to win simply because the Auditor’s Office is pretty good. . . . [but] A lot of people voted for both of us.”
The recount, certified Friday by the canvassing board, is final, Auditor Patty Rosand said Saturday. No additional counts are required and no appeal is possible, she added.
Miller will be sworn in at the first meeting of the charter review panel members in January.
Fifteen members were elected to the commission, five from each of the three county commission districts.
The machine recount was necessitated by the close Nov. 4 general election race for the position, in which Miller, who came in fifth, and Sinn, who placed sixth, were separated by only 0.43 percent.
State law calls for a mandatory recount if the difference between the apparent winner and next candidate is a difference of fewer than 2,000 votes and less than 0.5 percent.
Auditor staff members reviewed 5,458 ballots that contained undervotes — meaning voters did not vote for all five positions in District 1.
The additional vote found for Sinn was on a ballot in which the voter has voted with check marks “and had barely touched that box so the machine couldn’t see it,” Rosand said.
Commissioners on the charter review panel will review the charter, Clallam County’s “constitution” for county government, and recommend amendments that will go before voters in November.
Miller — who was elected to the Sequim City Council in 2009 and reelected in 2013 — wants to change the charter to make more positions non-partisan.
“The primary thing I want is to make the prosecuting attorney position non-partisan,” Miller said.
“I think it’s a bad idea to have a partisan person in the law and justice area.
“I think the only positions that should be partisan are the commissioners,” he added.
A Charter Review Commission is elected every eight years.
Clallam County is one of six counties in the state that operate under a home-rule charter, unlike most where procedures are dictated by the Legislature.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
