Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson and Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall returned their own ballots Friday, Oct. 30, using the only method they say is reliable this close to election day: an official ballot drop box.
Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, but due to slowdowns within the U.S. Postal Service, ballots that get turned in close to election day are increasingly not getting postmarked in time for the votes to count.
Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked no later than 8 p.m. on election day in order to count.
While voters can go into the post office in person and ask for an immediate postmark, ballots put into a mailbox aren’t typically postmarked right away. Most don’t receive a postmark until they reach a major mail distribution center, which could be days after the ballot was put in the mail.
“We're seeing an increasing number of folks who actually vote on time, they drop it in the mailbox thinking it'll get postmarked, but it does not get postmarked in time,” Ferguson said Friday during a press conference at South Puget Sound Community College’s Olympia campus.
In the August primary, Washington state saw 20,000 ballots that were mailed on time, but were not postmarked before election day, and thus could not be counted.
In that same election, the Thurston County Elections Division received an unprecedented 71 ballots after the election had already been certified. Those ballots all had valid postmarks, but, for whatever reason, were delivered weeks after election day.
“Personally, I've lost faith in the United States Postal Service when it comes to delivering election mail on time,” Hall said Friday. “There are drop boxes all over the state, and I really encourage voters to use them to ensure that their ballot counts for this election.”
Washington state has a total of 601 drop boxes, according to information released by the Washington Secretary of State.
Drop boxes are regularly emptied by county elections staff and transported directly to a local ballot processing center.
Drop boxes are secure, and tampering with them is a crime.
That said, Ferguson has offered county election auditors voluntary assistance from the state’s National Guard to help with election security.
The offer comes two years after an incendiary device was planted in a Clark County ballot box, destroying hundreds of ballots.
Seven counties, including Thurston County, have taken Ferguson up on the offer.
In Thurston County, National Guard personnel will serve in a purely supportive role to enhance the county’s election infrastructure security, according to the Thurston County Auditor’s Office. Members will be unarmed, out of uniform, and will operate directly under the Thurston County Auditor in coordination with local law enforcement.
They will not serve as law enforcement, nor will they touch, handle, or participate in the processing of ballots in any capacity, the auditor’s office assured.
In addition to drop boxes, there are 64 voting centers in Washington state, including two in Thurston County.
Voters can turn in their ballots at a voting center, or receive election-related assistance up until 8 p.m. on election day.
Voting center staff can replace damaged or missing ballots, update voter registration, help someone newly register to vote, provide voting accommodations for those with disabilities, and more.
The two Thurston County voting centers are:
As of Thursday, Oct. 29, Thurston County Elections had received 76,531 ballots, for a voter turnout of 35.67%.
Of those returned ballots, 70,852 have been accepted and 344 have been challenged.
A missing signature or a signature that doesn’t match the signature on file voter registration paperwork is the most common reason ballots are challenged. Voters whose ballots have been challenged do have a chance to correct their ballots and have their votes counted.
When asked Friday to comment on accusations that non-citizens are voting in the United States, Hall said that has never been an issue in any of the counties she has worked, including Thurston County.
“I've been in this industry for 30 years, and I have yet to have a non-citizen who has voted in an election,” Hall said. “I really don’t believe that there is a widespread problem here or anywhere.”
Voters must attest that they are citizens of the United States when they fill out their voter registration, and that registration database is very tightly managed, Hall said.
There are some cases where a registration is flagged as belonging to a non-citizen, but an investigation finds that the person is actually a legal citizen.
Most cases Hall has seen of non-citizens being registered to vote are accidental automatic registrations made by the Department of Licensing.
Those are all quickly caught and canceled, Hall said.
For more information about the Nov. 3 election in Thurston County, visit https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/auditor/elections.
