County certifies election results

EPHRATA — “And we are done. It’s official ... the election is certified!”

Grant County Election Administrator Trisha Gibb put down her pen. Along with County Auditor Michelle Jaderlund, County Prosecutor James Mitchell, and Chairwoman of the Grant County Commission Cindy Carter, Gibb spent much of Tuesday morning signing papers certifying the results of each race and ballot measure in the recent general election.

“The final results will be posted online today,” Gibb said.

Washington state law requires county officials to certify the results of a general election 21 days after it is held.

It has been laborious work, with election officials examining each signature, comparing them with what’s on file, and throwing the ballots out if they do not match.

According to Gibb, Grant County mailed out ballots to 39,772 registered voters. Of that, the county received 29,783 back — 74 percent voter turnout.

And of those received ballots, 395 were rejected — about 1 percent. Of those, 196 were thrown out because the signatures did not match with what the county on file, 48 were unsigned, 50 were received too late, 60 didn’t come in the right envelope, 14 voters submitted two ballots, and 27 submitted ballots for the wrong election.

“We do verify signatures,” Carter said, sighing. “We look at all of them.”

Gibb said the county is required to keep ballots from the general election for 22 months, after which they will be buried snugly in the county landfill.

“And now, we get ready to do this again in February,” Gibb said, referring to the impending vote in the Moses Lake School District for a bond to build a new high school.