Thurston County’s new voter services center may miss some key elections. Here’s why
Thurston County wants to open a new voter services center in time for the 2024 elections, but money and timing concerns are complicating those plans.
The new center will occupy a building at the county’s Mottman Complex, located at the intersection of Ferguson Street Southwest and 29th Avenue in Tumwater.
The county purchased the complex for $5.6 million in 2021 with the intent of turning it into an expansive election center. However, those plans were partially stalled due to a lack of funding. Instead, the county decided to develop the new voter services center in time for the March 2024 presidential primary.
Now, it seems the project will not be ready for the presidential primary and it may even miss the state’s August primary. Rick Thomas, capital projects planning manager for Thurston County, shared an update on the project’s timeline as well as funding concerns during a meeting with the Board of County Commissioners last week.
“The estimate for the project is about $2.6 million,” Thomas said. “That still leaves a little over $400,000 in budget deficit for the project, not including security.”
The county has about $2.2 million set aside for the project thus far, according to a document Thomas shared with the board. The total cost was previously estimated at over $4.1 million, but he said the county removed non-essential elements to cut costs.
Thomas said he anticipates the design work to be finished by the end of September. The timeline also includes a permitting period of up to three months with the city of Tumwater and about six months of construction.
As it stands, Thomas said the Auditor’s Office won’t be able to move in until around mid-August 2024. He said he hopes the county can convince the City of Tumwater to expedite the permitting process so construction could finish by the end of June.
The Auditor’s Office runs the current voter services center at 2400 Evergreen Park Drive SW in Olympia, otherwise known as Building 5 of the county’s courthouse complex.
If the current timeline cannot be sped up, Auditor Mary Hall said the current space would be challenging to use during the next presidential election.
“We’ll miss the presidential primary as well as the state primary,” Hall said. “And it’s going to be very, very difficult to conduct those elections in Building 5 with the small lobby that we have.”
Cost concerns
At the moment, the county is looking at a $414,000 funding gap, which includes a $6,000 gap for security costs, according to the document Thomas shared.
Assistant County Manager Robin Campbell told the board she has “no way to fill this gap at this time.”
In response to a question from Commissioner Carolina Mejia, Campbell said the gap may not be eligible for money from the county’s rainy-day fund.
Hall said her office is applying for grants to close the gap, but there’s no guarantee that they would be awarded sufficient funding. In the absence of grants, she called on the board to consider using its general fund.
“We have a pretty healthy fund balance in our general fund,” Hall said. “I would hope that democracy would be higher on the priority list, and you could shave a little bit off that. We’re talking less than a million dollars right now.”
To cut costs from the previous $4.1 million estimate, the county already has scuttled plans for an exterior vestibule, an area where people would line up before accessing the voter registration reception counter. This vestibule was moved inside the building’s current footprint.
Hall likened the vestibule to a queuing area for airport security. She said this area is needed because there may be up to a two-hour wait to get a replacement ballot during a presidential election.
“A lot of discussion in regard to that because having the outside vestibule does give you a slightly better, I would say, physical separation than having a vestibule that’s kind of embedded on the inside,” Thomas said.
A diagram of the space shows the reception area at the front center of the building, offices and meeting rooms on the right half of the building and “season election space” on the left half.
Thomas said the county initially planned to include a multipurpose or conference room on the left side, but instead opted for a simpler open space.
Security costs for the project include the construction of two safe rooms with ballistic walls, exterior security doors with anti-tamper hinges, an electronic entry-control system, and security film on exterior windows and an interior vestibule.
Additionally, the county hopes to include an intrusion alarm system, exterior lighting, a security IT conduit system, a CCTV security system, a plexiglass divider at the reception counter, and a remote release and intercom for vestibule entry.
Lastly, the document says the exterior will feature bollards and planters to prevent someone from driving into the facility.
