Sarah Glasscock of Yakima opened her primary ballot envelope Sunday intending to familiarize herself with the candidates and the issues. One named leaped off the page: Her own. Glasscock saw her name on the ballot as a candidate for a Republican precinct committee post in Precinct 110, an area along West Yakima Avenue. Problem is, Glasscock didn’t file a candidacy declaration and she’s not a Republican. Should she gain the most votes among the three candidates, she could resign. That’s not the problem. The problem is how her name appeared in the first place. The intrigue includes her declaration arriving as a fax from a New Jersey phone number that belongs to a marketing office for the Japanese manufacturing firm Miki Sangyo. According to its website, the diversified firm has interests in specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, specialty paper and opticals.
She and county elections officials are mystified. So, apparently, are police with whom Glasscock filed a fraud complaint. “The officer who took my report has been in fraud investigation for years. He said he has never heard of anything like this,” she said. County elections officials would agree with that. Auditor Corky Mattingly said her staff investigated after the 36-year-old Glasscock brought the error to their attention. Mattingly said staff found the May 18 declaration purporting to be Glasscock’s and concluded it met the legal requirements and had a valid signature. Mattingly emphasized her office followed state law in processing the paperwork.
The declaration included her signature, one that Glasscock said, however, appears much like the way she wrote her name when she first registered to vote at age 18. The signature raised Glasscock’s suspicion that the voter registration system had somehow been hacked. Mattingly rejected that concern.
Full Article: Yakima woman mystified to find herself as a candidate on ballot | Yakima Herald-Republic.