It is astounding to me that over 65% of the votes for OBSD District Director #5 went to a person who is ineligible to serve because he no longer lives in Washington, let alone the school district.

John Holtermann registered and confirmed he was eligible to run as an incumbent for the seat. Between the May registration and the election, he put his home up for sale (his words “it sold faster than I thought”) and prepared to move across the country. In response to a question at the Sept. 27 OBSD meeting about this yet unannounced move, he answered yes, his home had sold and he was resigning as of Oct. 15. Before the election. When asked if he was planning on alerting the media about this change, he replied no.

Because of this pending resignation, two women decided to enter the race as write-in candidates — and good for them! But here is the problem. Per Washington state election rules, any votes for Holtermann, the only name appearing on the ballot despite him not being eligible, would still be counted for him.

And even more unsettling, when the votes are tallied, the write-in candidates’ votes, per state rules, are not to be presented to the public if the ineligible candidate receives a higher percentage of votes. The media covered Mr. Holtermann’s resignation and the write-in candidates’ bids to run, but still over 65% of the voters checked the ineligible candidate’s box.

Not a stellar moment for the voters. Not a stellar moment for fair and equal elections in our state. At the very least, when a candidate on the ballot becomes ineligible to hold office after the ballots have been printed, a voter should expect an additional “memo” inserted into the ballot package stating the change. At best, the ineligible votes should not be counted.

If Mr. Holtermann’s plans had gone unnoticed, a quick resignation after the election would put in place the OBSD policy that would allow the board to appoint whomever they pleased. This policy is there to handle unexpected resignations between elections, but this type of policy, combined with a state election law that provides an open door to manipulation of elections, creates a pretty tasty dangling carrot of opportunity to any board with similar guidelines.

How someone does not know five months ahead of time that they are moving or even considering moving out of state in regard to running for office is a question. How the school board was not aware of these plans is another.

One would think that since the incumbent was not eligible to hold office, the write-in candidate with the highest number of votes would automatically fill the position. But that is not the case. To have the numbers released, there is a 3-day period of time after the election is confirmed to make a request to release the write-in votes per candidate. I believe it takes some sort of court action — amazing. One would hope the school board would take heed of the public’s desires when appointing the District Director #5 position — we shall see how that turns out.

In the meantime, thank you to Pacific County Auditor Alex Gerow (and congratulations) for her help in researching this election law. Congratulations to Mark Mansell who will make a fine OBSD director, and to Chuck Mikkola, who will make an equally fine Port of Peninsula commissioner. And well done to school board candidates Karen Stephens and Claire Brunke. You ran a good race and deserve better than our state allows.

BONNIE COZBY

Ocean Park