Local View: Safe, accurate elections

This opinion was originally published in The Columbian.

Recently, a proposed ballot initiative made the erroneous statement that the League of Women Voters had expressed concern about election security in Clark County. We weren’t consulted by the author of the measure, and we do not agree with its premise that county elections procedures are flawed.

The initiative did not gather enough signatures to be on the ballot this year. However, skepticism about ballot processing persists among some citizens.

The nonpartisan League of Women Voters firmly believes that elections in the county are safe and accurate. And here’s why you should believe us:

We have a corps of 40 election observers who have been trained and certified by Clark County Elections. In every local election, the League’s observers are on hand to watch the entire process from ballot pickup to tallying the votes.

Arriving at the elections office, observers from the League and the two major political parties sign in on a secure system and are photographed. No photos or recording devices, such as cellphones, are allowed.

Observers are not allowed to speak with one another. Any questions must be addressed to the election supervisors. Anyone who wants to make a phone call must do so outside the elections office.

The observers may accompany elections staff picking up ballots from drop boxes, and they rotate among various ballot processing stations.

When ballots arrive, they are run through a mail sorter and scanned for signature verification before being opened. Elections staff who have been trained by state police compare the signatures on the outer envelopes with those filed with voter registrations. Observers watch this process on computer screens that mirror those of the verifiers. If there is no signature or if the signatures don’t match, election staff call the voter to try to correct the situation.

After signature verification, the ballots are opened and turned over to ballot processors who are seasonal employees, many of whom have been doing this job for many years. They examine the ballots to see if there are overvotes or if there is an issue understanding the voter’s intent. All ballots with such issues go to ballot resolution. Observers can watch on computer monitors as the elections staff makes decisions about voters’ intent.

Finally, all ballots are scanned. There is never a time when the envelopes or ballots do not have the oversight of two or more elections staff members. And none of the computers used in ballot processing are connected to the internet.

Clark County Elections continually upgrades security, implementing new technology and enhanced procedures. New drop boxes have become so strong a truck sustained damage when it inadvertently hit one, yet the box did not have a scratch.

Before every election, there is a logic and accuracy test in which a test deck of ballots is tabulated to verify the voting system is accurate in reading and recording votes.

In addition, a manual hand count comparison is done for one race, with batches of ballots that are selected, but not touched, by the chairs of the two political parties and the League Election Observers Committee. These ballots are run through the vote scanner, and the tallies are put on a thumb drive and secured in a safe place to be counted in the 8 p.m. election night release. The next day, they are manually counted. This is one of many checks to make certain the election software and scanners are working properly.

In the general election, there also will be a sample test in which paper ballots are chosen randomly and compared to the voting system results.

Any questionable ballots are referred for review by the Canvass Board, made up of a county councilor, county prosecutor and Clark County auditor.

There is tight security throughout the process, and the number of people allowed in the processing area is limited. The check-in application is programmed with the names, signatures and photos of certified active election observers.

The League of Woman Voters is proud of our observers’ work, which speaks directly to our mission of empowering voters and defending our democratic republic. Voters can go to https://clark.wa.gov/elections for more information on how ballots are counted in Clark County. And they can find out whether their ballots have been received and counted at https://voter.votewa.gov.

Nancy Halvorson is president of the League of Women Voters of Clark County.