If you want to make sure your vote is counted, color in the box when you’re voting by mail.

Island County Auditor Suzanne Sinclair said new voting rules she received Friday from the Secretary of State’s office decree that “voters must mark their ballots in a consistent pattern.”

Each candidate and issue has a box beside it the voter marks to show his or her choice. Don’t color in one box and check another, for example, or the votes might not be counted.

Sinclair doesn’t like the new edict, if fact she says “I hate it,” because she wants every vote to count. But if voters don’t show the required consistent pattern in their voting, the ballot will be set aside and held for the canvassing board to consider. If the board follows the new law, many votes could be left uncounted.

“I may disagree with them but I’m stuck with it,” Sinclair said. The new rules were apparently adopted to make sure votes throughout the state are counted the same way, she said. She can’t argue with the decision now because ballots were mailed out Wednesday. “Their words are the law,” she said of the Secretary of State’s office.

A consistent pattern of check marks or X’s would also be counted, but Sinclair doesn’t want voters to get confused, so play it safe. “Color in the box — that way they’ll all be counted,” she said.