Ocean Shores candidate seeks damages over alleged ballot error in race decided by one vote

A woman who lost an Ocean Shores City Council race by one vote, along with the city’s mayor, is suing Grays Harbor County in federal court. They claim county election officials listed their names in the wrong order on 2023 ballots and then hid records showing the mistake.

Peggy-Jo “PJ” Faria and Mayor Frank Elduen filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, according to KING 5. The suit names the county, Auditor Joseph MacLean and Deputy Auditor Scott Turnbull. It seeks money damages and changes to how the county handles elections.

Faria lost the race for Position 6 on the City Council to Richard Wills, 1,740 votes to 1,739, according to the complaint. Elduen won his race for mayor.

A drawing put them first, but ballots listed them second

Every year, the county holds a random drawing to decide the order candidates appear on the ballot. The complaint said the signed record of the May 19, 2023, drawing put both Faria and Elduen first in their races, but both appeared second on the ballots mailed to voters, according to KING 5.

The lawsuit argued that being listed second cost Faria votes in a race decided by a single vote. It cited research showing that candidates listed first on a ballot can get a boost from that position alone.

Faria and Elduen are not asking the court to overturn the election or remove anyone from office.

Mayor says he raised the issue in 2023

The complaint said a typed report posted on the county’s website that correctly listed Elduen first but wrongly listed Faria second.

Elduen started asking questions in September 2023. That’s when a copy of an early military ballot posted online showed his opponent, then-Mayor Jon Martin, listed first. The complaint alleges that Turnbull then emailed MacLean a revised report that appeared to change the recorded order to match the ballot.

An unsigned email from the county’s elections account assured Elduen and his wife that his ballot position was correct. That email said the online report reflected the order in which candidates filed, not the results of the drawing, according to KING 5. The complaint disputes that explanation.

The signed drawing record wasn’t released until Oct. 16, 2024, despite repeated public records requests, according to the lawsuit. By then, the deadlines to challenge the election had passed.

Judge criticized county officials in earlier case

The federal suit follows a public records case the Elduens won in state court. In July, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Christine Schaller ruled that Grays Harbor County violated the state’s Public Records Act. She found the county failed to adequately search for and release the signed drawing record, along with text messages between MacLean and Turnbull, according to Go Grays Harbor.

In her written order, Schaller said she did not find testimony from MacLean and Turnbull credible. She wrote that their explanations “appear to be fabricated to cover a huge error” by the auditor’s office. She later ordered the county to pay the Elduens more than $68,000 in penalties, according to The Daily World.

At a July 24 hearing, Schaller described the officials’ conduct as “interference with the election process.” She also made clear she was not ruling that election laws had been broken, since that question was outside the scope of a public records case, according to The Daily Chronicle.

Jeffrey Myers, an attorney for MacLean and Turnbull, disputed claims that the officials were dishonest. He said the drawing record had gone missing and wasn’t found until it was too late to fix the ballot, The Daily Chronicle reported.

“When the plaintiff argues that the County has been dishonest about it, he’s not telling the whole story,” Myers said.

MacLean, a Republican, was first elected county auditor in 2018 and is not running for reelection, according to The Daily Chronicle.

What the lawsuit asks for

Faria is seeking money for campaign spending, lost council pay and benefits, emotional distress and other harm. Elduen wants to recover the legal costs of investigating the ballot order. The suit also asks for punitive damages against MacLean and Turnbull, according to KING 5.

The pair also want the county to keep signed drawing records, post them within five business days, and have someone other than the person who prepared a ballot proof check it against the drawing before ballots are printed.

The case is a federal civil rights claim, and the plaintiffs have asked for a jury trial. Both Faria and Elduen plan to run for Ocean Shores City Council in November 2027, according to the complaint.

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