Pierce County elections officials will work through the weekend to finish counting and canvassing signatures submitted by backers of a campaign to recall Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam.
Elections leaders announced the extended schedule Wednesday, adding three days to a process what they had intended to finish by Friday.
The latest numbers suggest the outcome will be decided by a second review of challenged signatures. Washam did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Recall backers, led by Puyallup resident Robin Farris, need 65,495 verified signatures to qualify the recall for the Nov. 8 general election ballot. The number represents 25 percent of voters in the 2008 election that brought Washam to office.
At the close of business Wednesday, the canvassing count stood at 59,685 verified signatures, and 19,512 challenged signatures, for a total of 79,197.
To qualify, the recall effort needs at least 5,810 more verified signatures.
It was unclear how many unreviewed signatures remain. Farris estimated she turned in 84,503 signatures Aug. 30. If correct, the uncounted remainder would be 5,306.
Under those circumstances, the focus turns to challenged signatures.
Front-line elections workers place challenged signatures into a separate category, to be double-checked later. Challenged signatures still can pass the validity test on further review.
Farris remains confident the canvassing, combined with the review of challenged signatures, will tip the numbers in her favor; she said she already is preparing for a fall campaign.
“I’m very optimistic,” she said Wednesday. “Not a doubt in my mind.”
Elections workers focused exclusively on challenged signatures last Saturday. Elections manager Mike Rooney could not provide an exact count of how many signatures were reviewed; he estimated “a couple thousand.”
The review restored 549 signatures to the verified column.
On Tuesday, Rooney estimated about half of more than 16,400 challenged signatures had been reviewed. The challenge total has grown in two days of counting since then, leaving possibly as many as 10,000 challenged signatures to review.
Sean Robinson: 253-597-8486
sean.robinson@thenewstribune.com
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