RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2011 | Vol. 87, No. 91 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Vote on I-1183 is over, but questions continue to swirl BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
Thursday was Day Two and another day of uncertainty for Ken Vaughan. Vaughan owns the liquor store in Freeland, and like other statelicensed contract liquor sellers, he’s found there are no easy answers after voters approved Initiative 1183 Tuesday and took the state out of the liquor business. “It’s a big change. It’s a big change for everyone,” he said. Vaughan has been thinking about I-1183 for months. He thought early on it would pass, and began making a business plan on how he would transition from a business that gets its inventory upfront from the state without charge, to a new model where he has to fill his shelves based on what’s in his bank account. He started writing down questions the other day to get ready for an emergency meeting Sunday for a committee made up of contract sellers from across the state. He’s got two pages’ worth now.
What are the new rules? Can he get financing? Dip into his retirement? What if the biggest grocery store on the South End, the one across Main Street from the business he’s had for 15 years, decides to sell liquor? That would take away half his business, he figures. “There’s so many loose ends. What will I be paying for booze? How much should it be marked up?” “There’s a question in every question.” Vaughan said. “It’s Day Two. And nobody knows the answers.”
I-1183 VOTE
INSIDE: Senior moments, Sports, A12
Amy Walker takes the world by storm. Again.
YES: > 70% YES: 60-69% YES: 50-59% NO: 50-51%
Precinct results through Nov. 9 Washington voters passed I-1183 with a 59-percent “yes” vote on Election Day. The measure was passed by voters in Island County, as well, though the margin of approval was tighter. SEE I-1183, A24
Kathryn Parrott photo
Amy Walker of Clinton was chosen to co-host a three-part TEDx related series recently filmed in Phoenixville, Penn.
Canvassing board takes on role of mind readers Clinton actress makes mark BY BRIAN KELLY
at ‘MindBender’ conference
South Whidbey Record
COUPEVILLE — What were voters thinking? Three top Island County officials spent a little more than an hour Wednesday trying to sort that out. No, they weren’t wondering why some candidates got the nod, and others got the gate. Instead, Island County Commissioner Angie Homola, Prosecutor Greg Banks and Auditor Sheilah Crider — the three members of the county’s canvassing board — met to scrutinize ballots that had been rejected from the initial vote count on Election Night. The trio reviewed 25 ballots, some where more than one box had been marked in the same contest, others with errant marks hither and yon, and others that had deliberate and dark marks that then faded away toward the end of the ballot. The board members referred often
BY PATRICIA DUFF South Whidbey Record
Brian Kelly / The Record
Prosecuting Attorney Greg Banks laughs as he tries to decipher a questionable vote on Wednesday. to a thick booklet with guidelines on how to determine the intent of the voter, complete with illustrations on the many ways that voters can botch a ballot.
One by one, the board worked their way through an envelope filled with bad ballots. SEE BOARD, A24
Amy Walker’s first YouTube video, “21 Accents,” now has 6.9 million views. She’s turned a few heads because of it and now the Clinton native is spreading her ideas about identity for TEDx. “Hello. I’m Amy Walker and I’m an actor, a singer, a writer, a director, a producer and an entrepreneur,” says the artist in the opening line of her talk, “Expanding Your Identify to Embody Your Potential.” Walker was invited to co-host the TED offshoot series that was filmed in Phoenixville, Penn. this past September.
Created in the spirit of TED’s mission of “ideas worth spreading,” the TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis. Using her graceful dialectswitching shenanigans, Walker presented her talk in three parts: “Defining Your Identity,” “Expanding Your Identity” and “Embodying Your Potential.” SEE WALKER, A17