Odd election

Normally an election for the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District passes by with moderate interest.

Not this year.

Probably because there is a lot at stake with the progress on permitting and dredging the lake of sediment.

A former Moses Lake mayor defeated a former state legislator, who claims the district broke a couple of laws. One has to do with increases of district taxes beyond 25 cents per $1,000 assessed property value and the other about the district offering health insurance for elected officials.

We have heard from former candidate Mick Hansen (See the guest editorial.)

We ask the district, including the newly elected Ron Covey, to respond to the charges. Are they illegal? Did a mistake lead to these situations? Are you going to change policies to rectify the situations? We have guest editorial space waiting for you.

But we are currently more concerned with the election procedure.

The district followed the law. But was the election fair? Was it transparent enough for the public to rest assured it was done correctly?

There is a lot of doubt when employees facilitate the election of potential bosses.

Two votes per parcel within the district and allowing a spouse to vote for the other spouse (if there is one) seems wrong. It is pretty standard in the US to have each person be allowed to vote - once.

Still, it is the law. But just because it is a law, doesn't mean it is fair or right.

Another taxing district holds similar elections with each registered voted having one ballot and the Grant County Auditor's Office taking care of counting and validating ballots. It helps keep the Moses Lake School District honest. It keeps their elections fair and transparent.

But changes in the method of electing irrigation district officials is not in the hands of the irrigation district. It rests in the hands of our state legislators. They are the only ones who can change the law about irrigation district elections. Yes, they are busy with the state budget, but we think they can still find time to rectify this election discrepancy.

A simple bill requiring all taxing districts to conduct elections through auditor's offices would do it. They can change it from parcel owners voting twice to registered voters each receiving a single ballot, just like city, county, state and federal elections.

The district can pay the county for the work, just like school districts do when they seek special elections for levies.

It would have a neutral, professional third party running the election/ A group we already use and trust.

It removes questions about conflicts of interest.

It would make it easier to understand.

With the amount of politics taking place around the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District's election, we are pretty sure Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, and Sen. Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, know about the situation. Let's hope they can draft a bill and have it passed in Olympia to make the needed changes.

Every election is important.

- Editorial board

Red-faced newspaper

Yep. We admit it. We got snookered.

Last week, one of our contributing writers sent us a beautiful story about the origins of the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." We thought it would be suitable for our Christmas Eve edition, and ran it on the front page. It was a well-written, interesting story.

Unfortunately, some of it was fiction. A bit of ribbon on a gift to make it look better. The story of Rudolph was not in fact written to comfort a little girl whose mother was dying, but rather was originally an advertising promotion. (You'd think a newspaper would catch on quickly to something like that, wouldn't you?) The girl and her mother were real, but not really connected to the song. You know the rest: the story was made into a song, which was recorded by Gene Autry and became one of our best-loved Christmas songs.

It was one of those sentimental, heartwarming stories that have been passed around from e-mail to e-mail. The term for such a story is myth or urban legend. This particular one was brought to our attention by several readers who directed us to the urban legend Web site Snopes.com. There we found our heartwarming story, with an explanation that most was true and a couple of bits that weren't.

It was the sort of story that's meant to entertain rather than inform, so we didn't do the sort of fact-checking that a hard news story would require.

So, the laugh is on us. We were taken in by a sweet tale. Our faces are suitably red and we'll probably be teased by our friends and neighbors for a while. That's okay; we'll be laughing at ourselves as well. It's embarrassing, but not the end of the world.

It looks like we have a New Year's resolution: if a story has any hint of urban legend about it, we'll check the sources twice before running it. We'll leave the urban myths in the e-mail where they belong.

Here's to a myth-free 2011!