Precinct committee candidates who filed online may have to refile

Washington Democrats and Republicans who decided to run for precinct committee officer in August and filed their paperwork online early this week take heed: If you filed Monday or Tuesday, you need to do it again by Friday afternoon. The form you filled out was missing a key element that made it invalid.

Secretary of State Kim Wyman said the online filing system at VoteWA.gov, the state’s voter website, did not have a place for those candidates to declare they are a member of the party for which they are seeking the precinct office.

The unpaid political office is the only one one on the primary ballot that requires a candidate to declare party membership. Most other state and county offices are partisan, but because the state operates a non-partisan top two primary, candidates for those offices only say that they “prefer” a particular party. The two with the most primary votes advance to the general regardless of party preference.

In precinct officer elections with multiple candidates on the primary ballot, the top Republican and top Democrat are elected in August and there is no general election runoff.

Although the required party declaration was left off the online form, it is included on the form candidates who filed in person submitted. They don’t have to file a new form.

Candidate filing opened Monday morning, but the mistake wasn’t caught until it was pointed out by the state Democratic Party, Wyman said in a news release.

On Wednesday, Gael Tarleton, a Democratic legislator challenging Wyman for the secretary of state position, called for an immediate audit of the VoteWA system, because of the problem with precinct officer registration and other problems candidates reported with outages, charges and filings.

Here are the candidates who have filed for Spokane-area offices above precinct officer, as of Wednesday evening:

County Commissioner District 1: Josh Kerns, Republican.

County Commissioner District 2: Mary Kuney, Republican

District 3 Senate: Andy Billig, Democrat; Dave Lucas, Republican.

District 3 House Pos. 1: Marcus Riccelli, Democrat.

District 3 House Pos. 2: Timm Ormsby, Democrat.

District 4 Senate: Mike Padden, Republican.

District 4 House Pos. 1: Leonard Christian, Republican; Lori Feagan, Democrat.

District 4 House Pos. 2: Mike Conrad, Republican.

District 6 House Pos. 1: Mike Volz, Republican.

District 6 House Pos. 2: Jenny Graham, Republican; Tom McGarry, Democrat.

District 7 House Pos. 1: Jacquelin Maycumber, Republican

District 7 House Pos. 2: JJ Wandler, independent; Joel Kretz, Republican

District 9 Senate: Mark Schoesler, Republican.

District 9 House Pos. 1: Mary Dye, Republican.

District 9 House Pos. 2: Joe Schmick, Republican.

Court of Appeals Pos. 2 Tracy Staab, Marshall Casey.

Superior Court Pos. 1: Annette Plese.

Superior Court Pos. 2: Charnelle Bjelkengren.

Superior Court Pos. 3: Ray Clary.

Superior Court Pos. 4: Julie McKay.

Superior Court Pos. 5: Michael Price.

Superior Court Pos. 6: Tony Hazel.

Superior Court Pos. 7: Maryann Moreno.

Superior Court Pos. 8: Harold Clarke.

Superior Court Pos. 9: John Cooney.

Superior Court Pos. 10: Michelle Szambelan.

Superior Court Pos. 11: Timothy Fennessy.

Superior Court Pos. 12: Rachelle Anderson.