Auditor’s staff adapting process to ensure safety during Candidate Filing Week

Since the Thurston County Auditor’s Office closed to the public in mid-March, we have been adapting our work to protect customers, employees and public health. Much of the work we do — from voter registration, auto licensing, document recording and finance — is now being handled remotely.

While we’ve adapted our day-to-day work, we’re also making changes to our more focused events, such as Candidate Filing Week, which runs May 11-15. Under normal circumstances, dozens of candidates – including Precinct Committee Officers – would stream into our office in May to file to run for office.

With our revised filing week operations, there will be some changes. Here’s what candidates can expect:

• Most should be able to use the state’s VoteWA.gov online portal to file.

• We will also have filing forms available outside building 1 at the courthouse on Lakeridge Drive Southwest. Completed forms can be deposited in the ballot drop box outside the county courthouse.

• Anyone who requires additional help or has questions about the filing process can call our elections office at 360-786-5408.

• Our office will livestream the ballot order lot draw after 4:30 p.m. Friday, May 15.

Candidate Filing Week is only the first step in a year in which elections will be significantly different.

Our system of vote-by-mail has been held up as a model nationwide for conducting elections during a pandemic. I agree. Vote-by-mail is a great model to protect the health of voters. It should be adopted everywhere, using Washington state as an example.

But vote-by-mail comes with its own challenges in a pandemic. Take, for example, the tables our elections workers sit at in our Ballot Processing Center. Teams of election workers usually sit at crowded tables, well within the 6-foot social distance perimeter.

This is about to change. We are working to reduce risk for people processing ballots.

We already have installed plexiglass dividers to protect inspectors working at the same tables.

We are creating a staffing plan that would double the number of inspection shifts, but with half the staff in the building for each shift.

Even during the Presidential Primary in March, we took steps to protect our election workers by providing gloves and sanitization supplies.

We’re working on a final plan for how elections will be different in Thurston County this year. We are balancing voter access with employee and public health. I am thankful that because of our vote-by-mail system, we are ahead of the game. I want to ensure you that my top priority is communicating to you any changes to our elections.

Mary Hall has been Thurston County Auditor since 2013. As auditor, she oversees the county’s elections.