Do county council candidates vote? We investigate
For months candidates running for Clark County council have been beckoning you to fill out your ballot and turn it in. So, it’s worth asking: Do the candidates themselves actually vote?
The Columbian looked back at candidate’s voting records going back to 2010. There have been 23 elections since. Some of them were elections for positions in Vancouver, Washougal and other cities. Some of them were for special districts, so no candidates could legally vote in every election.
Overall, all four candidates running for County Council have been pretty good about turning in their ballot.
Tanisha Harris, a Democrat running District 3 position on council, has voted in every election since 2010, according to county records. John Blom, her Republican opponent, has missed three votes in that time period. He missed the February 2010 special election, which was heavy with school district levies
. He also missed the August primary in 2010 and again 2011.
Eileen Quiring, a Republican running for the District 4 position, only missed the February 2010 special election. Roman Battan, her Democratic opponent, missed a total of six elections. The most recent election Battan missed was the May 2016 presidential primary, which didn’t really matter for Democrats anyway. In 2010, he missed the special election and the primary. In 2011, he missed the primary and the general. In 2013, he missed a special election.
Battan tells The Columbian that he missed the votes because of work demands that included travel.
“I was on a pretty heavy travel schedule nationally,” he said.”It was probably just a result of business and being busy.”
