Few votes invalidated in first top-two primary

SAM TAYLOR

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Maybe it's something in the water: Whatcom County voters appear to be getting better and better about correctly filling out their election ballots, as only about 1.1 percent were declared invalid this primary.

The state's first top-two primary brought out 47.2 percent of Whatcom County's voters - a lower figure than Auditor Shirley Forslof's initial prediction of 55 percent voter turnout.

During the 2006 primary, about 4.5 percent of ballots were declared invalid. That number dropped to 3 percent in the 2006 general election. About 7.1 percent were declared invalid during the 2007 primary. That dropped to about 2.2 percent during the general election the same year.

The Auditor's Office automatically will have to conduct manual recounts for 10 precinct committee officer races that were tied, said Elections Supervisor Pete Griffin.

Nine of the 10 tied races involved Democratic PCO candidates, with one Republican race tied. Griffin said one precinct had five Democrats tied. Each had just one vote apiece.

If the races remain tied after the manual recounts, the Auditor's Office will conduct either a coin toss to break that tie or some other method where multiple candidates are involved. That could mean drawing straws.

Meanwhile, some 548 ballots out of 50,715 total votes received by the Auditor's Office were declared invalid for various reasons, including: