Ballots will be mailed soon. Here’s what to know about how your vote is secured
November general election ballots will be mailed out to Washington voters the week of Oct. 17.
Those ballots — issued by election offices — go through a strict security process not only from the time they are printed, but until they are submitted and counted.
As increased scrutiny and misinformation over mail-in voting has cropped up, Washington election officials hope to set the record straight about the security of the process in order to set voters’ minds at ease.
According to Halei Watkins, the communications director for King County Elections, a vendor called K&H that works with other counties and states across the country, first prints the inserts, ballots, and other election materials. The vendor itself not only has strict security procedures, they also have several quality control procedures when it comes to ballots, Watkins said.
The barcodes on your ballot, for example, are used to ensure that all envelopes contain the correct materials, Watkins added.
Once printed and packaged in envelopes, ballots are directly handed off to the post office, who use Intelligent Mail Barcodes to track individual ballots as they move through the pipeline of the mail system. With the barcodes, ballots are tracked daily as they are delivered and returned. Watkins said they also can identify any individual ballot that may get tied up in the mail delivery process.
Once voters have filled out their ballots and are ready to return them, they are able to simply place their ballot back in their mailbox for a safe return through the secure post office system.
But, Diana Bradrick, Whatcom County Auditor, told McClatchy that she encourages people to use the drop boxes because election staff directly handles them when being collected, and the ballots then directly go to ballot processing centers.
Other measures for ballot security are implemented as well.
Drop boxes themselves are made of thick steel, and include locks and seals on the inside and outside, making it easy to tell if it has been tampered with, Bradrick said. The drop boxes are fire safe, and local law enforcement are notified so they drive by ballot boxes more frequently, she said.
Teams of two from the election office always handle ballots, and no one person is ever left alone with them, according to both Watkins and Bradrick.
The check-in process begins with an envelope sorter that first scans the barcode on the outside of the envelope to notify election officials that an individual has returned their ballot. Before envelopes are even opened, signatures on the envelopes are compared with voters’ signatures on record. Ballots with signatures that don’t match, or ballots that are not signed, are held back until voters can correct the issue after being notified by the election office.
State Sen. Phil Fortunato of Auburn and some other Republicans claimed at a “Stop the Steal” rally in 2020 that voters who receive multiple ballots can submit all of those ballots, essentially voting more than once.
While multiple ballots can be sent to one person, particularly if they have changed forwarding addresses on file or moved, the penalties for returning multiple ballots can be steep.
Plus, election offices will know, said Stuart Holmes, state elections director for the Washington Secretary of State’s Office. Second-level reviews are immediately triggered if more than one ballot is submitted by the same person and scanned through the sorter, he said.
If multiple ballots are sent from one individual, “only one of those is going to be counted and the other one can be potentially treated as a crime,” Holmes added. Voters can be prosecuted for submitting more than one ballot.
A very important thing for people to remember, Holmes said, is that voters must sign an oath on the outside of the ballot envelope that they haven’t submitted any other ballots. Voters also have a responsibility when voting, he said.
Mix-ups do happen, such as when spouses place the wrong ballots in the wrong return envelopes, but those can be easily sorted out, Stuart noted.
Envelopes with correct signatures then continue the process.
Envelopes are separated from ballots, and then ballots are separated from security sleeves. After this point, there is no way to tell who voted on a ballot, Bradrick said. Ballots are then scanned, always with multiple election staff around, and webcams are available for the general public to view. In-person observers also are welcome, both Watkins and Bradrick said.
Bipartisan observers are frequently present, and Watkins said it is rare now for them to not be present during the ballot-counting process.
Ballots are stored in locked areas that are sealed every night. Access to the storage areas requires a badge and a thumbprint, Watkins noted.
Similarly, election results are stored and tabulated in a separate room. Observers can still watch, but even fewer election workers are allowed in the room — including King County Elections director Julie Wise, Watkins said. The room is also air-gapped so that results cannot be tampered with, in addition to other security measures.
Voter tabulation machines are tested before, during and after election day.
Two weeks before election day, logic and accuracy tests of the tabulation machines are legally required to be tested before any live ballots can be scanned, Watkins said. Test decks with a “predetermined list of results” are run through the tabulation system to ensure that results from the machine match with the information the machines should be reading, she said.
Every county across the state does this, Watkins said.
Post-election manual audits are done after the election, Bradrick said. Batches are randomly picked before being hand-counted. Manual recounts are conducted in close elections, she said, but machines prove to be very accurate.
Typically, about 99.5% of ballots are delivered within the first few days, usually by the following Monday, Watkins said. She also encouraged voters to submit ballots early, especially if there are concerns about the mail-in process.
Mail-in ballots will be due by 8 p.m. Nov. 8 for this general election.
Additionally, voters who still have concerns can contact their local election office with any questions. More information can also be found online at the Secretary of State website.
This story was originally published October 10, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: The timing for mailing and return of ballots was corrected Oct. 14, 2022.
