The county’s elections office will remain a firearms-friendly zone.
During the most recent primary election, a certified election observer, tasked by the county Republican party with overseeing people counting votes, showed up packing a .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol.
Nobody said a word to Gerald “Rick” Halle, and there were no altercations. But later, some of the elections workers said they were uncomfortable.
Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey, also a Republican, said he would discuss the issue with the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Turns out, there’s nothing the county can do.
“The state has preempted the area of regulating firearms,” said Chris Horn, the county’s chief civil deputy prosecutor.
In the future, if observers show up with sidearms, a staff member will ask them to voluntarily put their firearm in a newly purchased gun safe.
If the observers don’t want to park their guns in the safe, “they will still be welcome to carry out their responsibility,” Kimsey wrote in an email.
The county currently prohibits employees from carrying firearms at work, but elected officials and the public are allowed to bring weapons into some county buildings. State and federal law bans the public from carrying weapons at the courthouse, juvenile justice facilities and the community health campus. The elections office is in a separate building not covered by those bans.
“Either the law has to be changed or the political parties have to re-evaluate the issues, since they pick the observers,” Horn said. “As far as the county is concerned, we can’t regulate or prohibit or even prevent people from exercising their legal rights.”
Halle, who all agreed wasn’t “brandishing” his firearm that day, said storing his gun in a safe would defeat the purpose of wearing a firearm.
“I can’t predict, no matter where I am — if I’m in an election office, the grocery store, a mall — I can’t predict what’s going to happen there,” Halle said. “I don’t know everyone else there and I’m not sure what they are capable of doing. I don’t know what will happen when I walk out the door. It’s like putting on my seat belt or helmet.”
Lee Jensen of Battle Ground was serving as an election observer with Halle during the primary elections. Jensen, also a gun owner, exchanged a few words with Halle but didn’t mention anything to him about the weapon. No one did. But Jensen said later it was not the right place to bring a gun.
There is a small room off to the side of the main ballot sorting room where ballots rejected by the county machine are scrutinized by three people attempting to decipher the intent of the voter, Jensen said. It’s common for an election observer to stand behind them.
Having a partisan person “standing behind you, holding a gun,” he said, could easily be disruptive or intimidating.
Despite disagreeing on the issue, both Jensen and Halle said they are in favor of the civil dialogue the incidence has provoked.
“I would like to see a gun-free zone,”Jensen said.
“And for people who do carry guns to understand there are people who don’t feel the same way about guns everywhere,” he said.
Halle said he’s never been asked to remove his firearm.
“I don’t mind having an open dialogue about open carry,” he said. “It’s a chance for people to learn and understand what their rights are and aren’t and the reasons for us that choose to carry, why we do so.”
