The statement for Joe Baker, candidate for Yelm City Council Position 2, appears under the name of Larry Martin, candidate for Yelm Fire District 2, said Kim Wyman, Thurston County auditor.

"We made a corrected (City Council) page and sent it to every household in the city of Yelm," Wyman said. "We told people, 'Please use this for voting.' "

Baker is facing Donald Moody for City Council Position 2 in the Nov. 4 general election.

The Auditor's Office then became aware that there was no statement for Martin, and sent another corrected page to every household in Yelm Fire District 2.

The two mailings will cost about $1,000, Wyman estimated.

"I'm not real happy about it," said EJ Currie, Baker's campaign manager.

The corrected information should be in voters' homes before the absentee ballots are mailed this weekend, Wyman said.

"If that happens, then I probably wouldn't feel quite so bad about what's going on," Baker said.

Currie and Baker said they had submitted Baker's candidate information early. Both acknowledged that "mistakes happen," but Currie said she had doubts that the updated pages will be effective, saying that they're likely to stay separate from the rest of the pamphlet.

The other race affected by the printing error is Yelm Fire District Position 3, which pits Larry Martin against Orval French. Baker's City Council statement was printed under Martin's name.

"Mistakes happen," Martin said. "I'm just hoping that the correction gets out now."

Martin thinks the mistake might bring a little attention to the race. "It didn't really upset me, but I was surprised that it did happen," Martin said.

Wyman said that her office has seven layers of checks, double-checks and proofreading, and that her office is reviewing the process.

"I'm very sad that we've made this mistake, but we have corrected it," she said.

"The upside is that we have time to correct it before voters have received their ballots. That's really the bottom line and that's what our job is."

The Olympian Online

 •Election news
 •Candidate Profiles
 •Poll: Will you vote in the Nov. 4 general election?

On the Web

Thurston County Audito - Primary Election Results