ISLAND COUNTY: New charges filed in Elections Office mask case

Whidbey News-Times
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Jessie Stensland reports from Island County Superior Court for the Whidbey News-Times.

Two people who flouted a mask requirement in the Island County Elections Office and then attempted to have a judge reverse the rule are facing criminal charges.

Tim Hazelo and Tracy Abuhl, the former chair and vice chair of the Island County Republican Party, were charged with misdemeanors in Island County District Court for allegedly disturbing the process of counting ballots during the general election.

Abuhl, a Camano Island resident, was surprised to receive a summons on charges of criminal trespass and disorderly conduct just before Christmas, according to Hazelo.

Hazelo is facing a single count of disorderly conduct. A report by Coupeville Marshal Bo Miller indicates that Hazelo actually asked to be cited and warned that he would return to the Elections Office if he didn’t receive one.

They Said It

Hazelo said in an interview this week that he will fight the criminal charge in court and claimed that Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks, a Democrat, is pursuing the cases for political reasons.

Banks said he takes disruption of the election processes seriously.

“I believe the public is also very interested in ensuring elections are not tampered with,” he wrote in an email. “It has been a topic frequently in the headlines since 2020.”

Hazelo said he will also continue to pursue a legal remedy in the separate, civil case over the mask mandate in the Elections Office. He said it’s an issue he wants the court to weigh in on.

“It has nothing to do with masks. That was just the catalyst,” he said. “The question is whether a low-level politician can make up arbitrary rules and impose them on the public.”

[Island County Auditor Sheilah Crider, a Republican,] wrote in an affidavit in the injunction case that 10 people in the office became ill and tested positive for COVID during the primary ballot recount in August.

“Because all of our volunteers are over the age of 65, and because we cannot afford to lose essential workers to perform the work of processing ballots, I have required that all staff, volunteers and observers in the ballot processing rooms wear a protective face mask,” she wrote.

[Ed. Note: Mr. Hazelo’s term of office as Island County Republican Party chair ended in Dec. 2024; he was subsequently elected as the party’s State Committeeman. Mr. Banks, who had run as a Democrat in previous elections, stated “No Party Preference” during his last campaign for office in 2022.

  • January 3, 2025