Clallam County Auditor Shoona Riggs said this week the county elections office in late January found 125 unopened ballots that were returned during the 2016 November General Election.
According to a press release from the auditor’s office, staff from the Clallam County Election Division on Jan. 25 discovered the ballots inside the walk-up Election Ballot drop box that is located at the east side of the Clallam County Courthouse as personnel were inspecting the four drop boxes in advance of a Feb. 14 special election.
The discovery, which comes two-and-a-half months after the General Election and two months after the same election was certified, was reported to Riggs, who reported the unopened ballots to the Washington Secretary of State’s Office and the Clallam County Canvassing Board — two bodies that help oversee the conduct and certification of elections in Clallam County.
“The recently discovered and uncounted votes will not alter the results for any race or measure at the local, state or federal level,” Riggs said in a statement.
“Nevertheless, this is an unfortunate and egregious failure on the part of our 2016 November General Election process and one that I am taking very seriously. The right to vote and participate in our democratic process is sacrosanct and the 125 individuals that cast the recently discovered ballots deserved better.”
Riggs said she is contacting the 125 voters to inform them of the discovery and is working with the Secretary of State’s Office, canvassing board and legal counsel to perform “corrective action,” she said in the press release.
“While credit for the 125 votes at this late date may not be possible, because Clallam County and the State of Washington have already certified their election results, we will make every effort to update our records to reflect the voters’ participation in the most recent election cycle,” she said.
The Clallam County Auditor will provide updates as additional information becomes available, she said.
Riggs has overseen elections in Clallam County for more than 10 years.
”The failure to discover the 125 votes during the tabulation process is unacceptable and I will be revising our election practices to ensure that this never happens again,” Riggs said. “To that end, I plan to invite the Secretary of State to perform an out-of-cycle audit of our election process.”
The certified returns for Clallam County report that 41,042 votes were cast during the 2016 General Election — about 80 percent of registered voters — with the closest contested race, the gubernatorial race, resolved by a margin of 754 votes.
