Reed helps open new elections office

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed helped a number of local dignitaries christen Whitman County’s new $443,000 elections office last Thursday, March 3.

Reed and Whitman County Auditor Eunice Coker capped the six-year project by cutting a ribbon across the handicap entrance ramp of the building at the corner of Main and Upton streets.

“Isn’t this marvelous?” Reed asked the crowd of some-two dozen local officials and residents who turned out for the opening.

Whitman County Auditor Eunice Coker, left, and Secretary of State Sam Reed cut the ribbon on the new elections office.

Other honored guests at the ceremony were former county commissioners Les Wigen, Nora Mae Keifer and Maggie McGreevy along with present commissioners Greg Partch and Michael Largent.

The grand opening even prompted some good-natured grousing from other county officials.

“I’ve got no carpet. I’ve got no office,” Assessor Joe Reynolds said with a sarcastic wink. “Isn’t this nice.”

The building was remodeled over the summer by James Elmer Construction of Spokane. It previously housed Harrison Electric and Gregg’s Electric and was used as a workshop by courthouse maintenance staff.

Coker estimated election work is being done by her staff for 70 percent of the year. Having election duties centralized in the new building, she said, will make that work more efficient.

Preparation of ballots, voter registration and updating voter rolls will now be done in the same space. Voters will also be able to hand deliver their ballots at the office.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, at rear, speaks with the student council at Colfax High School last Thursday afternoon. Reed spoke to the students about the importance of voting and civic engagement. The secretary also spoke at the noon Rotary meeting. The state’s top archivist also visited the newly-remodeled library in Colfax as part of his barnstorm tour of Whitman County.

“This brings all that into one space,” said Coker.

The new office also provides street-level access for disabled voters and provides a security upgrade for ballots, which were previously stored in the county vault near the jail.

To accommodate disabled voters, the auditor’s office for years has used the commissioners’ chambers on the first floor of the courthouse. Handicap parking for the courthouse is available on grade at the north side parking lot.

Elections workers have for the past two years processed and counted ballots in the kitchen and meeting area of the Public Service Building.

A new space for election processing was prompted in 2005, when the county decided to switch its elections entirely to vote-by-mail.

“You guys really took your time building this building,” said Reed, whose office oversaw a grant to help fund the remodel.

Reed did give county officials kudos for the delay, noting the recession lowered construction costs.

Coker in 2005 received $360,000 from the federal Help America Vote Act to improve access to the elections office in the courthouse.

At that time, the elections department was housed in a corner of the auditor’s office on the second floor.

However, her plan to improve access with a new, wider elevator, was rejected because it would not be primarily used by voters.

That touched off a wide-ranging look at alternatives. Officials considered the basement of the jail and even looked at purchasing the former Hamilton Drug building on Main Street in Colfax. Whitman County Library recently purchased the Hamilton building.

The federal grant funding was revoked because the project had not been done, but Reed and Coker praised his assistant, Lori Guerrero, for her efforts to bring the money back to Whitman County.

“Lori really was a hero,” said Reed. “She threw her body across that money for Whitman County.”

Reed said Whitman County’s new elections center is typical of the updated elections offices in other counties throughout Washington.

The state was forced to retool its elections process in the wake of the contested 2000 presidential election and the hotly-disputed 2004 governor’s race.

Reed pointed out even in 2004 a majority of Washington voters were voting via absentee which meant ballots were being mailed to them.

Since then, most counties have opted to switch to all-mail and closed precinct poll sites. That change moved election processing from a countywide scatter to a centralized process.

“Now all that work has got to be done in the courthouse,” he said.