EVERETT — The new top-two primary system produced a strange by-product in Snohomish County, and around the state, this year.
There were 43 ties in races for precinct committee officer in the August primary election, a party position that’s a type of organizer.
Past figures weren’t readily available, but “this has got to be a record for the number of ties in any election, to have 43 of them, that’s quite a lot,” County Auditor Carolyn Weikel said.
There’s a simple explanation for all the ties, Weikel said. In the past, votes for precinct committee officers for each party weren’t even counted if they didn’t equal 10 percent of the votes received by the top candidate for that party in the precinct.
This year, with candidates not advancing by party, every vote was counted, she said.
Most of the ties were 1-to-1. A few were 2-to-2. One, not affected by this year’s new rules, was 111 to 111.
Snohomish County wasn’t the only place that experienced the outbreak in ties, said David Ammons, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office.
“They popped up all around the state,” he said.
Ammons said there’s discussion in Olympia of either moving the precinct committee officer elections to November or taking them off the ballot altogether and letting the parties decide them.
The ties were settled Thursday by putting Scrabble letters representing candidates in film canisters and putting them in a big drum. A representative from the League of Women Voters drew a canister in each race, witnessed by Weikel and Secretary of State Sam Reed.
“I signed 43 of those things,” Reed said with a laugh.
He also laughed later at the idea of having a runoff election to settle the ties. The drawing method is how any tie would be broken, all the way up to and including the governor’s office, he said.
One candidate present for the drawing had his mother-in-law along, and lost, Reed said.
” ‘If only you had voted, I would have won,’” the man said, according to Reed.
” ‘What makes you think I would have voted for you?’” his mother-in-law responded.
For those not present, the county left it up to the parties to notify the candidates. Colleen Rittenoure found out from a reporter that she lost her 1-to-1 race for Democratic precinct officer for the Martha Lake precinct near Mill Creek.
“The election this year really like made me want to get people to vote,” said Rittenoure, 31, a Barack Obama supporter.
She said she wrote herself in. She said her husband did, too, so she was surprised to hear it was 1-to-1.
The winner in the race, Marlene Holbrook, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Robert McCaughan came out ahead in the 111-111 tie in the Snohomish 8 precinct for Republican precinct committee officer.
McCaughan will serve his third two-year term. His job consists of mostly of getting out the vote and sending out information about candidates, he said.
“From time to time I get nasty phone calls and letters,” he said. “I got a brutal one this year.”
“These are not paid positions,” said McCaughan, 60. “The people go out and they commit a lot of time to it.”
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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