Thurston County’s new voter center opens in Tumwater. Here’s what it’s like inside
Thurston County citizens can now access voter services at a new location in the Mottman neighborhood of Tumwater.
The county officially opened the new voter center on Tuesday at its Mottman campus, located on 2915 29th Ave. SW. The previous location at 2400 Evergreen Park Drive SW in Olympia has been shuttered.
Citizens can register to vote at the Tumwater center and access other services, Auditor Mary Hall said. During elections, voters can get replacement ballots and use an accessible voting machine at the new center or at the Lacey Timberland Regional Library.
The new $1.6 million center opened just in time for the August primary, which was a key goal in the planning stage. The opening also represents a major milestone in the county’s efforts to centralize its election facilities at one location. The Mottman campus also houses the county’s ballot processing center in a building across from the new voter services center.
The Olympian toured the center Tuesday to get a look inside the new center. Though it opened that day, the facility was not entirely complete. Contractors were still working on doors and installing a few ceiling tiles.
“They’re still doing the last few changes,” Hall said on Tuesday. “But we had to open here because today is the legal opening day, statutory day where we have to be open as a voting center.”
What’s it like?
The center is housed in a warehouse-style building with a large awning over the entrance that can shield people from sun or rain. Hall said this will be a big help for the public during busy elections when lines may stretch outside the building.
The public will be directed to enter via a glass door into a small vestibule area that’s divided from the voter services counter area by an interior glass wall. From there they can line up for their turn at one of several stations.
Each station has glass that separates election workers from the public, but circular openings allow for conversation. There’s also a station that’s positioned lower than the others to be accessible to more people.
Hall said an accessible voting machine will be set up in front of the counters. The county website says the machine helps people with visual impairments, cognitive and learning disabilities, illiteracy and limited mobility to vote “privately and independently.”
“You could say it’s like an electronic pen,” Hall said. “If a voter is blind, it will read them the ballot and instruct them how to make their choice. If they need a larger font, it will enlarge the ballot.”
Hall said the machine prints a machine-readable ballot that can be placed in a normal secrecy sleeve that’s signed with a signature.
Another door leads into a large open warehouse room. Hall said there’s plenty of room to set up voting booths during elections.
“Our goal is to always make sure we don’t have long lines,” Hall said. “But we inevitably will because people procrastinate.”
Outside of election times, Hall said she expects to use the large room as a meeting space.
Visitors will be able to park in a large central parking lot at the Mottman campus or take Intercity Transit to a bus stop next to the center.
A green space separates the bus stop from the entrance of the voter center, which prompted accessibility concerns.
“I took one look at that and I was like, ‘That’s not acceptable and they’re not going to be able to walk across this green space easily,’” Hall said.
To address this matter, Hall said contractors installed a smooth pathway from the street to the center.
However, it’s worth noting that the bus stop is not covered. There’s also no sidewalk on the street, so people taking the bus don’t have a smooth surface when they get out.
Hall said she’s hopeful a covered bus stop and sidewalk may be installed in the near future. She also worked with city officials to have them install no parking signs on the campus’ block.
“I went to the city of Tumwater and just kind of talked through the situation that we can’t really have trucks parking here where you have a bus stop,” Hall said. “And (U.S.) Department of Homeland Security was like, ‘They can’t park there,’ just for safety reasons.”
The new center also houses offices and working space for the county’s election division.
Addressing security
Security for the center was a key concern when the county planned for construction at the campus. When asked if she felt satisfied with the security measures she ultimately got, Hall said she did not get everything she wanted.
“We raised over a half a million dollars in grants to help with the security in that building, so we did have a dedicated pot of money that we had sole discretion on how we spent it, so that was nice, and we put in as much security as we could,” Hall said.
Hall said the county can still add more security over time. Funding for that will come from the Public Safety Tax that voters approved in the November 2023 election. The proposition for the tax emphasized it would support law enforcement, but it also included a section for election security.
No funding for that tax factored into the new voter services center, Hall said. However, it will be useful in the future, especially as the county turns its sights to improving its ballot processing center.
In May, the county approved a $42 million bond resolution to finance either constructing a new building or improving an existing building for the Sheriff’s Office as well as renovating the Auditor’s ballot processing center and improving a security system at the county’s Family and Juvenile Court in Tumwater.
The projects for the Sheriff’s Office and the Auditor’s Office will be paid for using revenue from the Public Safety Tax, according to the county.
