Jim Fox, Lead Democratic Observer The 3-member Whatcom Co Canvassing Board is responsible for the election, per State law and Secretary of State rules. Members include the Auditor, and representatives from the County Council and Prosecutor's Office. Permanent Auditor Office staff maintain the Voter Registration Database, and prepare ballots for each election.

"In the spirit of pulling together, so we all win in November", a Whatcom County Democrats Vote Rally & Picnic will be co-hosted by the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribe.

The majority of the ballot preparation has been completed. Stragglers (most from out of the country) are being handled as they come in. This was the penultimate count. The next (and final) will be at 4:30p Tuesday 02 September, just before Certification. Pete, Caroline and one partially filled box of ballots led the way to the counting room. The dual (for redundancy) servers and one (of the three) counting machines were turned on. The two batches of ballots were run through the machine.

by Jim Fox, Lead Democratic Observer Preliminary Results - 8/25/08 Reg Voters 107,538, Ballots Returned 50,656 (47%), Counted 49,917 (46%) 8/22/08 Reg Voters 107,538, Ballots Returned 50,615 (47%), Counted 42,227 (39%) Monday (8/25) was busy with an almost full staff of temporary and regular workers. Opening and Counting are now routine, with orderly well controlled procedures. Errors are few, most quickly caught and corrected. Opening Board (Login, Signature-check, Opening, Checking, Duplicating, Etc.) is essentially complete.

Jim Fox, Lead Democratic Observer Preliminary Results - Friday 8/22/08 16:33 pm Total Registered Voters 107,538, Ballots Returned 50,615 (47%), Counted 42,227 (39%) Primary ballots continue to be pre-processed (opened, checked) and counted -- though incoming mailed ballots Friday were few (<100?).

Shirley Forslof, Whatcom County Auditor, would like citizens to be aware that the Canvassing Board of Whatcom County will begin the official canvass of the August 19, 2008, Primary Election with open public meetings beginning on August 27, 2008, at 9:00 a.m.

Washington voters will get to weigh-in on issues of traffic congestion, end-of-life choices, and long-term care workers on the November 4th ballot. These initiatives will be considered by the Whatcom Democrats for Endorsement/Opposition/No Recommendation at our September 10 Membership meeting, 7 pm, at the Garden Street Family Center, 1st Floor Conference Room, Holly at Garden, Bellingham. All members of the Whatcom Democrats may vote on these positions.

Ballot counts of early returns in the August 19th Primary Election show Governor Chris Gregoire (D) with strong support among Whatcom County voters. The Governor was holding steady at 51.5% to challenger Dino Rossi's (R) 43% as of counting the day after the election.

By Jim Fox, Lead Democratic Observer As Democratic Observer I attended both most of the Election Day Counting and today's Hand Count Audits. Per state law, ballots were pre-processed (checked for validity and readability) as they were received prior to Election Day. On Election Day some 28,000 "clean" ballots were machine read (but not totaled until 8:00 pm). Three (Sequoia 400-C) industrial quality counting machines are in a secure basement room. There is no network (Internet, etc.) connection to the outside. Access is pass controlled, and as always workers never work alone.

On Tuesday, August 19th 2008, I did a stint as an Elections Observer at the Whatcom County Elections Office. This was on Election Day, about 2:30-4:30 PM. . I visited the Counting Room as well as the Ballots Vault. The operation of the high-speed counting machines seems to be going well. Elections Supervisor Pete Griffin noted how well the new paper is working, running through the machines. There is next-to-nothing being transferred from the paper to the machines - dust, fibers, ink smears are almost absent with this paper, compared to that of other years.