Island County officials are owning up to a mistake that may cause some confusion for voters.
Last week, an eagle-eyed constituent notified Chris Carlson, a candidate for Langley City Council, about an error concerning him in the online version of the Island County voters’ guide, which was posted to the Washington Secretary of State’s website.
Unfortunately, the error made it into the printed version of the guide which residents will receive soon.
Carlson said in an email to The Record that his candidate statement in the guide had erroneously been replaced with a duplicate of the statement from Molly Hughes, who is running for reelection as Coupeville’s mayor.
Hughes, who was not aware of the issue previously, expressed sympathy for Carlson’s predicament when she heard about it from a reporter.
“How on earth does something like this happen?” she wondered.
In an interview, Island County Auditor Sheilah Crider explained that the error occurred because of a new software program that was used for the first time this year to compile the guide. At some point, Hughes’ statement was copied and pasted into Carlson’s statement.
“It was regrettable, but it was new to us and we certainly will be more familiar with it come next year,” Crider said of the mistake and the software program.
Within 24 hours of being notified by Carlson of the issue, the county elections office mailed out a notice Friday to Langley voters about the incorrect statement. The entirety of Carlson’s original statement was included in the mailer. According to Crider, since the voters’ guide was printed six weeks ago, no corrections could be made.
Carlson said Monday that he had received clarification that the Secretary of State’s website will continue to show the PDF of the incorrect version of the voters’ pamphlet. However, votewa.gov and the Island County website both list the correct statement.
“I haven’t received an explanation for how the error happened,” Carlson wrote in an email. “I do appreciate that they’ve moved quickly to correct what they can though.”
And despite having her statement listed twice, Hughes is doubtful that it will give her a leg up in her race.
“Somehow I don’t think that’s going to affect me,” she said with a laugh.
In his statement, Carlson describes himself as a public administration professional running for city council because he believes Langley “deserves an organized, inclusive and responsive government that delivers equitable, high quality and environmentally sustainable services to its taxpayers.” Affordable and workforce housing are his priorities.
