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Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

By Jack Kintner and
Meg Olson

After all the campaign fireworks, the election-day anticipation, the who’s-on-first confusion and fouled ballots, the fire district board of commissioners looks exactly the same: Don Frantz, John Fisher and Jesse Lofquist.

Fisher’s 187 to 90 vote win over Ron Calder for the four-year position was the only spot not to feel some post election shimmy.

In the race for the six-year position, Rich Lloyd asked for and paid for a recount of votes at 25 cents apiece in his unsuccessful bid to unseat incumbent commissioner Don Frantz. In the end the result was the same, though Frantz’s margin of victory over Lloyd shrank from 33 to just 5 votes. The recount was ordered when the county auditor’s office discovered 31 write-in votes that had not been included in the first count.

After the recount on December 3, the canvassing board certified Frantz the winner in that position with 63 votes, one fewer than he previously was given, and Lloyd finished second with 58 votes, 27 more than he was given before the re-count. Jesse Lofquist finished a distant third in the race with four votes. Lloyd also had three invalid votes and Lofquist had 142 invalid votes, all due to “over-voting” where ballots were marked for two candidates in the same race. The total number of invalid votes for Frantz was not released but Whatcom County auditor Shirley Forsloff said “most of the invalid votes were for both Lofquist and Frantz.” Invalid votes are not normally tallied but were for write-ins in this race.

Martin Mansfield took the win for the two-year position with 113 votes but resigned December 6, before assuming office. “The voter didn’t make a mistake and the auditor didn’t make a mistake,” Mansfield said. “Mr. Lofquist got more votes than I did. I expect people in elected office to hold themselves to a standard of integrity and I have to do the same.”

Having missed the filing deadline for the position to which he had been appointed, Lofquist registered as a write in candidate but mistakenly signed up to run for the full-term position held by Frantz. The result was everyone who voted for both Lofquist and Frantz had their ballot invalidated because they voted twice for the same position. Lofquist only got two valid votes in the position he thought he was running for, but 142 that didn’t count in another position.

“I've never heard of this happening before so frankly, I don’t know the answer,” said county elections official Peter Griffin when asked what the procedure was for filling the two-year position. County civil deputy prosecutor David Griffin found the answer. “Each commissioner shall serve until a successor is elected and qualified and assumes office,” he read from state statutes. The upshot is that Lofquist will stay in his seat until November 2003 when the position is up for election again.

Whether it was the will of the people, serendipity in action or dumb luck, the 2001 election appears to be over..

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