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Dear Group, Most of us probably were aware of elections in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina that were squeakers. They made national news. In contrast, I needed to do a google search to see who won the race for Spokane County Assessor, Tom Konis or Leonard Christian. Why did I care? Tom Konis worked in the assessors office for decades. He clearly possesses the expertise, and, as I understood it, he was well liked and respected by those who work there. Mr. Christian’s prior experience was as a conservative real estate broker, and appointed Republican Representative to the WA State Legislature (LD 4, Spokane Valley and north). He was appointed in 2014 to fill the seat from which Larry Crouse resigned for health reasons. Mr. Christian apparently was insufficiently conservative, since he was defeated by both Republican challengers, McCaslin Jr. and Diana Wilhite in the fall of 2014. His other qualification for assessor was “Republican Party District Leader.” It seemed to me this was a clear example of expertise for the job (Konis) in a race with a politician (Christian). My view of Konis, also a Republican, was further enhanced by rumors I’d heard of his occasionally appearing as a friendly face at events mostly attended by Democrats. Why should Republican credentials have anything to do with the job of County Assessor? On November 8th, two days after the polls closed, Christian was ahead by almost a thousand votes. Twelve days after the election the lead shrank to around five hundred (with about 3,500 write-ins and more than 46,000 undervotes). It wasn’t until a November 27, twenty-one days after the election, that Konis pulled slightly ahead “after elections officials counted more than 7,800 ballots that had to be duplicated because problems made them unreadable by the scanners.” The two votes over 150 topped the requirement for a hand recount, and Tom Konis was certified as the winner on December 12. I am impressed by the diligence of the elections officials and the volunteers who watched over the process. I am impressed the electorate came through in favor of expertise over politics in this race [and distressed the electorate chose Michael (“door-to-door knife fight“) Baumgartner, a career politician, over CPA David Green in the race for Spokane County Treasurer.] Equally distressing is the 3,500 voters who wrote in a candidate and the 46,000 who turned in ballots (20% of the 232,000 turned in) but didn’t do the research and vote in this race. I suppose one also might wonder how many of the votes that were actually cast in this race were cast by informed voters… Take home message: 1) Elections can turn on very few votes. 2) Elections for local officials are often undervoted. All politics is local. Let us all resolve to be better informed voters for the local elections in August and November THIS year. Keep to the high ground, Jerry |