Answers to your questions about voting and election security in Thurston County
Washington state has required voting by mail for almost a decade, but Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall says she’s seen more interest in the process this year than ever before, as the method expands and attracts national attention and concern.
In her view, that’s a good thing.
“I really think that once they understand all the checks and balances that are in place in a vote-by-mail environment, they’ll have confidence that their vote will count how they intended it to count,” she said in an interview with The Olympian last week.
The Olympian’s readers were invited to submit questions for Auditor Hall about voting and election security. She answered them all in an interview at the ballot processing center on Thursday and a follow-up phone call. We chose a handful of the questions, in some cases combining multiple readers’ questions into one or rephrasing them, and summed up the Auditor’s answers below.
Vote-by-mail
Q: I’ve had bad experiences with the U.S. Postal Service. How can I trust my ballot will be delivered on time?
A: Thurston County sent out ballots early this year (on Thursday), Hall said, so people have time to research the issues and return their ballots before the election. Voters who haven’t received a ballot by Oct. 20 should call the Auditor’s Office.
The Postal Service has been in the news a lot lately, Hall said, giving the example of recent stories regarding the dismantling of equipment. When that news broke, Hall said county auditors across the state were on a call with representatives from the Postal Service within a few days. In Washington state, she said, facilities have reinstalled some equipment they were told to take out.
The Washington State Association of County Auditors and Secretary of State have a strong relationship with the Postal Service, Hall said. As the election approaches, all three groups hold a daily call and talk about issues they might be seeing, she said.
From your mailbox, your ballot travels to Seattle, then back to the post office in Olympia, where staff with the Auditor’s Office do a daily pickup, Hall said. The Postal Service has assured county auditors that ballots will be treated as first-class mail and people should expect deliveries to take between two and five days, according to Hall.
The state requires your ballot be postmarked by Election Day. If you mail your ballot that day, Hall said to check the last pick-up time at your mailbox to ensure it goes out in time. But, since the ballot takes a roundabout route to the ballot processing center, she highly recommends mailing a ballot no later than the Friday before Election Day. After that, use a drop box.
She also confirmed there’s an advantage to large numbers of voters returning their ballots early: the county gets meaningful results as soon as possible. Plus, she said you won’t get as much campaign mail — candidates often request data from her office that shows who has returned a ballot then scrub their lists, because sending that mail is costly.
Drop boxes
Q: How often are ballots picked up from drop boxes?
A: Two Elections staffers will empty the boxes daily, and probably multiple times a day once it gets closer to Election Day, Hall said. They do not pick up on weekends, except for the last Saturday before the election.
Q: What security measures are in place for the county’s 29 ballot drop boxes?
A: They’re sturdy by design, made of 1/4-inch stainless steel that is all welded, Hall said, and either sunk into or bolted to concrete pads. Last year, an SUV rammed into one in Lacey — it totaled the SUV without denting the box, Hall said.
This year, the office changed out some boxes so that all are from the Vote Armor product line of the company Laserfab, Inc., and they’re sized by area based on statistics from elections past to avoid full boxes.
The slot is small, and a steel rain flap above it keeps ballots dry and makes it difficult to get anything else in.
When Auditor Hall worked in Pierce County, they put the same boxes through a fire test at a fire department, throwing in lit cigarettes and matches, she said. There wasn’t enough air circulation to keep a fire going — any flame was suffocated before it had done more than singe a couple envelopes, she said.
The office gets locks for their ballot boxes re-keyed, so there are no other keys out there like them, she said. Staff members who pick up the ballots also use tamper-evident seals that are signed and recorded in a security log, Hall said.
This year, a team of “troubleshooters” also will drive to drop boxes daily just to check on boxes.
Q: What happens if I accidentally drop my ballot in a box not meant for ballots?
A: This might happen at Olympia City Hall and the county courthouse complex. When those jurisdictions empty their boxes and find ballots, they move them to the nearby ballot box, Hall said.
On Election Night, staff at those locations will have someone at the box at 8 p.m. to ensure the Auditor’s Office has every ballot submitted before the voting deadline.
Counting votes
Q: Once I’ve returned my ballot, how many steps are left before tabulation?
A: Teams of two Elections workers pick up ballots and bring them to the processing center in Tumwater, where they go into a sorting machine that takes photos of signatures, scans bar codes, and sorts them by precinct.
Those signatures show up on the screens of staff who have been trained by the Washington State Patrol fraud division, Hall said. They compare envelope signatures with voter registration signatures. If they match, the ballot’s approved.
If they don’t match or there’s no signature, the sorting machine sorts out that ballot and the voter will receive a first-class letter from the Auditor’s Office. They have until the day before votes are certified to fix it, and the office will call if it’s within three days of certification and they haven’t, according to Hall.
Then, automated extractors open envelopes and blow air into them so a person can quickly remove ballots that are inside their secrecy sleeves. Envelopes with identifying information are then separated from the secrecy sleeves, which Hall explained protects voter anonymity.
Each ballot is visually inspected for anything that might disrupt it from being counted, such as corrections or food, then ballots are put into bins in a secure room. Starting a couple weeks before a busy election, ballots are scanned, but the Auditor’s Office cannot aggregate the results from the scanners, a step called tabulation, until 8 p.m. on Election Night.
A video on the Auditor’s website follows a ballot through this entire process and includes more detail. At the time it was filmed, the county used secrecy envelopes instead of sleeves and didn’t have the automated extractors.
Q: Do secrecy sleeves with one open end, rather than envelopes, present the possibility that secrecy could be compromised?
A: Not at all, Hall said. She said most counties use a sleeve instead of an envelope, and that it’s efficient and safer for workers because envelopes were licked. Just a bit of the ballot sticks out, Hall said.
“As long as a voter puts it in the secrecy sleeve, it’s going to be secret,” she said.
Q: What security measures are in place at the ballot processing center?
A: Cameras record activity throughout the facility and the office retains its footage for the length of the election, Hall said, plus the building has an alarm system.
Ballots are secured in either a locked cage or a locked room when they aren’t being processed, the environment in the center is open, with few walls, and people walk the floor to ensure everything is being done correctly, according to Hall.
During the processing of ballots, off-duty Sheriff’s deputies will be there. And there’s a back-up generator in case the power goes out.
Q: Why should I trust software to record my vote fairly?
A: It’s more accurate than human beings, Hall said. In hand recounts statewide, she said, totals may change by just one or two votes.
Q: Have the phishing and the scams that are affecting state departments affected the county?
A: No. Hall said her office has worked with its cybersecurity task force since early 2018, the Department of Homeland Security, the Secretary of State and the National Guard, and had the state Auditor do an audit of her office’s computer system that took two years. She said, at this point, staff members aren’t even allowed to open an attachment to an email.
“I feel pretty confident we’ve put in just about all the tools that we can afford right now,” she said.
Q: Can I observe the process?
A: The Auditor’s Office will be live-streaming video of its ballot processing center online throughout the election. Hall recommends people watch the “Path of the Ballot” video before tuning in to understand what’s going on.
Staff also gives tours, where people can watch in-person. Because of the pandemic, only two people are allowed at a time, and everyone is required to wear a mask and have their temperature checked. Political parties are given preferential treatment per state law, Hall said.
To schedule a tour, email elections@co.thurston.wa.us.
Q: Can I track my ballot?
A: Yes, by visiting votewa.gov.
This story was originally published October 11, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
.jpg)