Trust the process

On Tuesday, November 7, I was the only spectator in the lower courtroom of the Sanders County Courthouse as the ballots were counted for the municipal elections in Hot Springs and Thompson Falls. There were three election judges, Sanders County Elections staff members, and me.

Municipal elections may not be very important to some people, as evidenced by the low voter turnout earlier this month. During a presidential election year, there have been as many as a dozen spectators as ballot boxes are delivered from around the county.

On election night, ballots are delivered in sealed boxes and spectators can watch the ballots from the box to the tabulating machine, seeing the whole process. If a ballot has an issue, election judges at resolution tables (each table has three people) review the ballot and resolve the issue. One person is not making that call, three people are.

The election isn’t over after the ballots are counted and results are released. There is then a canvass of elections in which county officials audit election results. This process is also open to the public.

With the Thompson Falls City Council elections in Ward 1 and Ward 3, candidates Catherine DeWitt and Gunner Junge, respectfully, requested a recount. State law allows a candidate to request a recount - at the county’s expense - if the margin in a race is less than one-quarter of 1%, or less than 10 votes. If the margin of a race is outside that range, the candidate is responsible for the cost of the recount, if requested.

At the recount last week, there were less than 10 people in the conference room, watching the three commissioners tally each vote in Wards 1 and 3. It was the first time I’ve seen a recount. Jim Elliott said it’s been since the 1980s that a recount was requested in Sanders County.

The recount last week took about three hours. As Commissioner Tony Cox joked, if it was a county-wide recount that was requested, we would have been there until Christmas instead of Thanksgiving. It was interesting to watch the process. I asked candidates Junge and DeWitt why they hadn’t been in the room when the results were counted on election day, and they had other priorities that day. However, I would encourage everyone - especially candidates - to make it a priority to become involved in the election process and be in the conference room when ballots are counted. It’s a fascinating process, and a very secure one in which there is transparency at every step.

The outcome of the election in both races did not change with the recount. I watched the machine count the votes and then I watched our commissioners count the votes. The results were the same, with Raoul Ribeiro and Hayley Allen-Blakney winning re-election.

I may never get to see another recount in my tenure as a newspaper publisher, so last Wednesday was a monumental day in my career. But I hope anyone who has doubts about the election process will instead trust our elected officials, trust the process, and let democracy work. — Annie Wooden