When ballot is in question, here's what happens

By Susan Gilmore and Keith Ervin
Seattle Times staff reporters

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Some voters darkened the D or the R after the name, others made check marks, some circled the names of their favorite candidates and one voter took a pen to the dotted lines on the far side of the ballot, the lines the computer reads.

Should these votes count in the election for governor in this state?

Determining that is the mission of King County's "ballot duplication and enhancement board," which examines — under the watchful eyes of Democratic and Republican observers — each questioned ballot and decides whether it should be added to the 900,000 King County ballots already counted.

Those still in question go to the King County Canvassing Board, a three-member panel consisting of the King County prosecutor, the chairman of the Metropolitan King County Council and the director of elections.

Dean Logan, the director of elections, was appointed by County Executive Ron Sims, a Democrat. King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng is a Republican. He is represented by his chief of staff, Dan Satterberg. Councilman Dwight Pelz, a Democrat, represents the King County Council, appointed by the council president.

In a gubernatorial election that's closer than any other has been in Washington, election workers are toiling under a microscope.

How does the system work?

• If the machine that reads the ballots kicks one out as unreadable, election workers check to see if there was a mark the computer failed to read. If they determine the voter intended to pick a candidate but mismarked the ballot, the worker will either enhance the ballot by filling in the bubble, or, if the ballot is bent or torn, the worker may replace the ballot with a new one. Some voters marked their ballots with red ink, which the computer rejected.

• In some cases, the governor's race was intentionally left blank; about 22,000 King County voters didn't vote for a gubernatorial candidate. These ballots are not counted for the governor's race.

• If a voter circled a candidate's name, rather than marked the oval, and the intent is not clear, the ballots are set aside for canvassing-board review. If the voter circled all his picks, the ballot is counted. Yesterday, the canvassing board reviewed about 100 ballots, and most were counted.
 
"Where the voter intent was clear, we could preserve the original intent of the voter," Logan said.

• While King County is releasing no numbers until the recount is completed, the sheets filled out by the canvassing board are reviewed by the parties.

Ballots that aren't being counted are those where the voter filled in the space between the ovals or inked spaces next to both candidates.

King County has enhanced more than 700 ballots and sent about 100 to the canvassing board.

• Enhanced ballots are logged with the precinct number, given an identification number and initialed by the election worker. While they are not separated from the rest of the ballots, Logan said, they will be easy to find if they come into question in legal proceedings.

Most of the ballots being enhanced are those used at the polls. Absentee ballots were enhanced if poll workers opened them before the election and found they were mismarked. Some weren't counted and are now in the mix going to the canvassing board.

At a meeting before the recount, canvassing-board members looked carefully at optical-scan ballots from King County and punch-card ballots from some other counties to determine voters' intent.

Like their counterparts in Florida four years earlier, they held punch cards up to the light, turning them this way and that to see how many corners of a chad were detached. "It does make you appreciate the optical-scan process," Satterberg said in exasperation after extensive review of one punch card.

Panelists reviewed optical-scan ballots on which voters had made a variety of errors.

As Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens handed one ballot over to board members, he described the voter's technique as "scribbles that got out of control."

In Washington, 25 counties use optical-scanning technology, like King County's. The rest use punch-card ballots.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com