Election ballots are trickling back into the Clark County Elections Department as candidates continue ramping up efforts to get out the vote.
In the political world, all that last-minute sign-waving and doorbell-dinging is meant to bolster voter numbers. It’s an admirable, if seemingly Sisyphean, effort in a county with the lowest voter turnout in the state during last November’s general election, at nearly 38 percent.
It doesn’t help that among some candidates, voting is a matter of do as I say, not as I do.
But in the race for Clark County sheriff, which will be whittled from four to two candidates after the Aug. 5 primary, the candidates vote, more or less, on a regular basis.
“I’ve voted in every election since I was (21),” said candidate John Graser, a retired sheriff’s office commander.
All four candidates — Graser, Sgt. Shane Gardner, former detective Ed Owens and retired commander Chuck Atkins — have voted in at least 96 percent of the elections for which they were eligible in the past decade.
Graser said he makes an honest attempt to vote in every election. There are holes in his voting record in Clark County, however, because he spent time living in different counties over the past 15 years.
Following his medical retirement from the office in 1996, Graser and his wife spent time buying and flipping houses. The activity took him out of Clark County for a few years — including a year or two spent in Klickitat County in the late 1990s and another few years in Cowlitz County in the mid-2000s — during which he said he voted outside Clark County. After he moved back in 2012, he renewed his Clark County voter registration. Graser, a Republican, said he voted in that year’s general election for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Owens also has voted in the majority of elections in the past decade, casting ballots in all but one election. That was during a 2005 primary election.
Atkins, too, has voted nearly all of the time.
Sheriff Garry Lucas, whom one of the four candidates will replace, hasn’t missed an election in the past decade.
So what makes these guys different from the general voting public?
Cathie Garber, the county’s elections coordinator, said there’s likely a reason why the candidates have a better track record with voting than the general public. It comes down to feeling invested in the community.
Many voters, on the other hand, do not feel that connection, she said.
“There’s disconnect because (many voters) work in Oregon,” Garber said. “I’m not sure what we can do about it.”
The county’s election department sends voters’ pamphlets to all residents, even those who are not registered to vote. Residents can also register to vote online.
Atkins said he votes to build a connection with the community. “If we don’t vote,” he said, “what do we have to complain about?”
A candidate’s voting record has become a campaign issue in recent years. Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt was blasted by a labor union backing former Mayor Royce Pollard during the 2009 election for his less-than-perfect voting record, which Leavitt, in his 30s at the time, chalked up to being younger.
In 2010, while running for re-election, it was noted that former state Sen. Craig Pridemore missed five votes dating back to 2000. Pridemore, who’s running for county commissioner this year, has improved his voting record, but he has still missed a few, including a 2011 primary election.
His opponent for the county commissioner position, former Vancouver City Councilwoman Jeanne Stewart, has not missed a vote in the past decade.
When it comes to sheriff candidates, Shane Gardner hasn’t missed a vote in the past decade, going so far as to vote five times in 2008.
He agrees with Garber, the county’s election coordinator, that many Clark County residents don’t recognize what their civic responsibility is. That’s why candidates ring doorbells and wave signs, he said.
“The challenge is voter apathy,” Gardner said. “It’s not a presidential election. It would be easy for someone to get that ballot and have it get lost in the shuffle.”
So far, the county has received 12,417 of the 253,153 mailed ballots. Voters have until 8 p.m. Aug. 5 to return their ballots to the county. Mailed ballots can be postmarked no later than Aug. 5.
