Search for votes nears end

COEUR d’ALENE — A Hayden couple who voted in the Coeur d’Alene general election said they couldn’t recall for whom they cast their seat 2 ballots on Thursday.

Susan Harris and Ron Prior testified they lived in Hayden at the time of the Nov. 3 election but used their businesses address in Coeur d’Alene to vote in the Lake City races. And neither could identify whether they voted for City Council challenger Jim Brannon or incumbent Mike Kennedy.

“I didn’t know then, I didn’t know when I walked out of the polling place, and I don’t know now,” said Prior. “I didn’t know who the incumbent was. I was mainly concerned with other things on the ballot.”

The city ballot also had issues pertaining to Kootenai County during the election.

Previously, the couple was questioned about their vote by an investigative firm hired to look into votes, and gave a deposition to Brannon’s attorney Starr Kelso before testifying Thursday.

Harris said she couldn’t remember for whom she voted either. Neither disputed they lived in Hayden but voted in Coeur d’Alene.

“We did not understand about residency,” Harris said.

There will be a fifth day, beginning today, for the trial originally scheduled for four days.

Other witnesses took the stand Thursday, such as Julie Chadderdon, of Fernan, who said she received a wrong ballot in her split precinct. She said when she realized it wasn’t the proper ballot, she handed it back and asked for a Fernan one, which she filled out.

First District Judge Charles Hosack ruled he wouldn’t allow hearsay documents submitted into evidence. Those documents include certain recorded conversations with witnesses, and affidavits of witnesses who are not at the trial.

Four witnesses living in Canada and one living in California were called as witnesses but weren’t in the courtroom. A pair of witnesses, living in Kootenai County and Coeur d’Alene, were called to testify but were not in the courtroom. They will be called again today.

Carrie Phillips, elections supervisor who took over the position from now retired Deedie Beard, testified that of the 2,086 absentee envelopes counted after the election, four were unknown whether they were county or city envelopes, and 32 were county. Kennedy’s attorney, Peter Erbland subtracted those 36 envelopes from the 2,086 total to equal 2,050, which he compared to the 2,051 absentee ballots the ballot machine counted and the total the City Council adopted as the final number of ballots.

When the 2,086 envelopes were counted in June, 2,027 ballots were also counted at the time. Phillips said 17 duplicate ballots and 7 “write-in invalid ballots,” also produced for the ballot discovery leading up to the trial, should also be counted.

Duplicate ballots are ballots which cannot be processed through the counting machine due to some sort of defect. Those ballots are taken to elections workers who copy the votes on a new ballot that can be run through the machine and counted.

They are counted the same through the machine, but kept separately in storage. That group of 17 was never added to the original 2,027 total, and therefore should be added, she told The Press.

Write-in invalid ballots are when an ineligible name was written in as a write-in candidate. The machine stops when it recognizes a ballot has a write-in candidate, and workers verify whether that name is on a list of eligible candidates. If it is not, the write-in name doesn’t get a vote, but the rest of the ballot is counted, she said.

Added together, those ballots equal 2,051.