Grant Co. voters have minor ballot adjustment
This November’s Grant County ballot with the pink security envelope and the white mailing envelope underneath. The ballot as folded when it was mailed out is larger than both the security envelope and the mailing envelope and will have to be refolded in order to be cast, according to Grant County Auditor Michele Jaderlund.
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
EPHRATA —Voters in Grant County are going to have to do a little more work in order to vote thanks to an error made in preparing this November’s ballots, according to Grant County Auditor Michele Jaderlund.
In a press release sent Friday, Jaderlund, who oversees the county’s elections, said the November ballots were folded in such a way when they were sent out that they are too large and do not fit into the pink ballot security envelope or the mailing envelope unless the ballots themselves are refolded.
“(T)his will require the ballot recipient to manually fold the final ballot to fit into the security envelope upon voting and mailing,” Jaderlund wrote in the press release.
Jaderlund said the County Auditor’s office has been extremely short-staffed this fall because of an outbreak of COVID-19 at the contractor's site that handles ballot distribution, and the final step in supervising the preparation of this November’s ballots was missed.
“We are sorry for the inconvenience (and) we have been assured this will not happen again,” she wrote.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.
Correction: The COVID-19 outbreak was at a contractor's site, not at the County Assessor's office.