Pierce County Auditor candidate Julie Anderson called this morning to let us know that she discovered a couple of errors in one of her campaign fliers. (Due credit – Usually when we get such a call from a candidate, it’s to point out a mistake in an opponent’s campaign literature.)

Anderson was doorbelling down in University Place when she noticed the misstatements:

&bull The literature said she has been on the Tacoma City Council for nearly seven years. Actually, she came into office in 2004.

&bull The wording says she helped create the city’s first ethics code. It should have said board of ethics.

“I pulled them back as fast as I could,” after discovering the errors, she said. That meant having to scrap 50,000 items – about $4,000 worth of printing. About 250 to 300 fliers had already been distributed at her kickoff party and to some University Place voters.

Anderson calls the mistake a “big lesson” for her. “I just wasn’t watching the editing process closely enough,” she says. She acknowledges that paying close attention to details is an important attribute for a county auditor, who oversees elections, document recording and licensing. But when mistakes happen, she says, it’s also important to disclose them and rectify them.