Let’s remember when a $60 million typo was reported in the King County voter’s pamphlet, on this day in 1989 (October 24)
This is one of those stories where you can only just say, “whoops.”
From Alyssa Burrows of HistoryLink:
On October 24, 1989, The Seattle Times reports a typo in the November 1989 Voters’ Pamphlet that causes a ballot measure for King County Parks to ask for $60 million more than intended.
King County Proposition 2, a proposal to buy open space and corridors on which to develop parks and trails, asked voters to approve a $117.6 million bond. The 1989 November general election voters’ pamphlet, mailed to hundreds of thousands of voters, states that the measure asks for $177.6 million.
Gene Duvernoy, campaign manager for the Citizens for Open Space Committee, asked county elections supervisor Bob Bruce to mail postcards noting the correction to voters.
Bob Bruce apologized for the mistake. He said he was considering adding a footnote to the official Notice of Elections published in the newspapers and posted at all polling places, but that the prosecutor’s office had advised him that he was legally exempt from having to make a postcard mailing since the typo appeared in the explanatory paragraph, not in the ballot title. He said the cost of mailing the postcards would be $200,000 in postage alone.
On November 7, 1989, voters approved Proposition 2 by a two to one ratio at the polls, despite the typo.
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