Clallam: Unopposed judges in primary must stand election again because of quirk in law

You loved them in the primary election, so much that they ran unopposed.

Now you can vote for them again, even though they still have no opponents.

Incumbent Superior Court Judges Ken Williams and George Wood had neither primary opposition nor write-in votes to challenge them for office.

But they’re on the general election ballot anyway, although for all purposes they’ve already won.

The glitch in election law requires the second election precisely because Wood and Williams were unopposed, Clallam County Auditor Cathleen McKeown said Thursday, the day when first ballots started arriving in voters’ mailboxes for the Nov. 2 all-mail election.

In Jefferson County, where incumbent Superior Court Judge Craddock D. Verser faced Joan Best on Sept. 14, the primary outcome decided the contest — for Verser.

His name is not on Jefferson County’s general election ballot.

“If there’d been two candidates (per judgeship) in the primary election in Clallam County and one of them got 50 percent of the votes, that person would have won the election,” McKeown said.

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