This is Northwest Public Broadcasting's Weekly News Now I'm Tracci Dial Thanks so much for joining us.

NWPB is committed to bringing you fair, balanced, community driven election coverage.

Thanks to all of you who took part in our election survey.

We got a tip recently that ballot rejection rates are going up in Mason County.

That's a small county across the water from Tacoma on the Olympic Peninsula.

We looked into the numbers and found, no, that's not the case.

We got those numbers from Scott Allard with the Evans School of Public Policy.

“Mason County, based on the numbers we have, looks like it has about rejection rates a little bit lower than the state average, but fairly consistent over time.

” It turns out Mason County's rejection rates tend to hover around 1%, which is the state average.

Ballot rejections happen for a number of reasons, things like mismatched signatures or no signature.

Allards research found people of color and younger voters do have higher rates of ballot rejections.

That's compared to white and older voters.

If you have a news tip, give us a call or email us at News@NWPB.org.

A celebration in Pasco for a new law, three years after a deadly attack on a school bus.

The Richard L. Lenhart Act is now a law, making it a gross misdemeanor to trespass on a public school bus.

Richard Lenhart was a school bus driver killed in 2021 by a man who boarded his bus with students on it.

We talked to Russell Shjerven with Teamsters Local Union 839, in Pasco.

He says until Lenharts murder, most people didn't even realize it wasn't a crime to trespass on public school busses.

“We've had bus drivers screamed at, cussed at, spit on, assaulted.

So now, hopefully when people see the placards on the busses that say this is a crime to get on the bus and do that, it will deter them.

” The Richard L. Lenhart Act goes into effect in June.

Washington is now the ninth state with laws concerning public safety on public school busses.

Now we celebrate NWPB and KUOWs big win.

Ghost Herd is a podcast from our very own Anna King.

Ghost Herd has won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for best podcast.

The regional awards honor outstanding achievements in broadcast and journalism from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

Ghost Herd now goes to the national competition, of which awards will be announced in August.

A big congrats goes out to Anna King and the whole Ghost Herd team.

You can find Ghost Herd and more on all of these stories on NWPB.org and on our Instagram and Facebook pages.

I'm Tracci Dial with your NWPB Weekly News Now.

Thanks for joining us.