Reprint | As general election approaches, County Elections office prepares

||| BY MINOR LILE, REPORTER |||

With [just three] weeks remaining until the November 3 general election, there are many significant issues confronting a fair and safe voting process around the country. Many States are having to implement alternative voting procedures in response to the COVID-19 epidemic. There has also been a significant level of controversy around mail-in voting generated by President Trump

According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, nearly half of registered voters across the country anticipate that there will be difficulties associated with voting in this year’s elections. Many voting rights advocates and organizations are urging voters to pay close attention to the process and to have a plan in place for voting.

Washington is one of five States (the others are Oregon, Colorado, Utah and Hawaii) in which ballots are mailed to all registered voters for all elections. Statewide vote-by-mail was implemented in Washington in 2011. As a result, much of the controversy around voting in this year’s election is missing here. There are well established systems in place at both the State and county level for managing the voting process and assuring a secure and accurate count.

In San Juan County, elections are overseen by County Auditor F. Milene Henley and Elections Supervisor Camolyn Armstrong. When asked about any concerns she might have related to the general election, Armstrong, who has served as Elections Supervisor for the County since 2017, responded that she feels strongly that the process is very secure. “Washington has been a vote-by-mail State since 2011 and we have procedures in place for every step of the process. I feel very confident that San Juan County and the State of Washington will have successful and true results.”

At the State level, elections are conducted under the supervision of the Secretary of State’s office. Both the county and State provide a great deal of election-related information on their websites:

San Juan County: www.sanjuanco.com/1221/Elections-Office

Washington: www.sos.wa.gov/elections

For an informative discussion of Vote-by-Mail in Washington, see this recent newyorker.com interview with Secretary of State Kim Wyman.

The one page Washington State Vote-By-Mail Fact Sheet also provides additional background that is both useful and informative.

Voting in the General Election In order to vote in the general election, a person must be at least 18 years of age, a resident of Washington and not under the authority of the Department of Corrections for any felony convictions.

Voter registration is available online, by mail, or in person. Qualified individuals can register through votewa.gov. The deadline for online registration is October 26. In-person registration is available up until 8:00 pm on November 3 (election day) at the County Elections office, located at 55 Second Street, Suite A, in Friday Harbor. Mail-in registration forms are available at the Orcas Island library. All registered voters are being encouraged to visit votewa.gov to confirm that their voter registration records are up to date.

There are more than 14,000 registered voters in San Juan County. The turnout for the August primary election was over 68% and as of early September an additional 211 voters have registered since the primary. Election officials are anticipating a turnout of close to 90% for the general election.

The process of mailing ballots to registered voters begins on September 18, at which time Military and Overseas ballots must be mailed according to Federal law. Domestic ballots are scheduled to be mailed on Tuesday, October 13.

As in past elections, the ballots for San Juan County will be printed and mailed from Seattle. Once the ballots are mailed, they should be delivered within the next three to ten days. In 2018, one full pallet of ballots for that year’s November election was misdirected by the Seattle post office and their delivery was delayed for over a week.

The Secretary of State’s office recently issued a rule change requiring that mail-in ballots that are sent to voters within 15 days of the election be delivered to voters as 1^st class mail. This provision was already in place in San Juan County. Ballot return envelopes will also include prepaid 1^st class postage and are processed accordingly.

County voters will be considering candidates in 22 Federal, State and local races, as well as six different ballot measures. Information on each of these will be available through the Voter’s Guide. The Voter’s Guide is available online through votewa.gov  and a printed guide will be mailed to all registered voters by mid-October.

Completed ballots must be postmarked by November 3 or deposited in a ballot drop box by 8 p.m. that evening. This means that if you are mailing the ballot, it must be at the Post Office by closing time, which is 3 p.m. in Eastsound and 2:30 p.m. in Deer Harbor and Orcas. If you use a postal service collection box, the pick-up time is 1:15 p.m. in Olga and 2 p.m. in Eastsound. Ballots that are deposited at the post office or collection box after these times will not be postmarked until the following day.

Another option is to deposit the ballot in a ballot drop-box. There are three drop boxes in the San Juans, one each on Orcas, Lopez and San Juan Island. The Orcas drop box is located at the Senior Center, 62 Henry Road. The deadline for depositing a ballot at a drop box is 8 p.m. on November 3. The County has acquired new drop boxes for the November election. These drop-boxes are nearly twice the size of those used in previous elections.

Election officials are suggesting that voters utilize the drop-box option if there is less than one week remaining until election day. In addition to avoiding the risk of a delay at the post office and the ballot not being post-marked in time, this also facilitates timely processing and tabulation of the voting results. Because the deadline for mail-in voting is on election day, it usually takes several days for all the votes to be received and tabulated by the Elections office. For the August primary, due to an unusually high volume of last minute mail-in ballots, just 31% of the votes were counted on election night.

Voters can confirm that their ballots have been received through votewa.gov within a few days of voting.

Voting Security and Confidentiality Prior to every major election, the Secretary of State’s office requires each of the 39 counties in the State to conduct a Logic and Accuracy test of the vote tabulation system. In San Juan County, this test has already been conducted twice this year, once for the Presidential primary in February and again for the August primary election. A third test of the tabulation system will be held prior to the general election but has not yet been scheduled.

At each step of the process, there are redundancies and procedures in place that are intended to prevent fraudulent activity and inadvertent mistakes. For example, picking up and delivering ballots from a drop box requires that two county employees be present. A similar requirement applies to picking up completed ballots at the Friday Harbor post office.

The challenge of conducting an election in the midst of a pandemic has had some impact here in the county. One issue is related to the fact that with many County employees working from home, it is more challenging to put together the two person teams to pick up and deliver ballots from the drop boxes on Lopez and Orcas. Additional sanitation measures and safety procedures for election volunteers have also been implemented utilizing funding specifically allocated for this purpose through the Federal CARES act.

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Vote Tabulation and Election Results The elections office begins to compile results as the mail-in ballots are received. There is a team of volunteer election workers who help with this process. Democrat and Republican party representatives are also allowed to be present if they choose.

Counting the vote is a five-step process. The first step is to separate the ballots from the mailing envelope and remove them from the security sleeve. The second step is to scan and review each of the ballots.

In past years, there have been questions raised from time to time about the barcode that appears on the right side of the ballot. In every election there are a few voters who cut this barcode off their ballot. According to Armstrong, this barcode does not contain any personally identifiable information. It is only used for verification of the election date and to identify the precinct that the ballot came from. There are 19 precincts in San Juan County.

Ballots with missing barcodes are still counted, but they must be processed manually. This typically adds about 20 minutes per ballot to the time it takes to tabulate results. Using pencil, or ink colors other than blue or black also requires manual inspection of the ballot and slows down the tabulation process.

Another question that is often asked is about the tear-off stub at the top of the ballot. According to Armstrong, the purpose of the stub is to serve as a quality control device. There is a small barcode that is placed on the stub. During mail assembly the barcode on the stub is matched to the barcode on the envelope. This assures that every voter is getting the correct precinct, and, if applicable, party and language on their ballot.

While strict measures are taken to assure the confidentiality of each ballot and who a person voted for, the question of whether or not a person voted is a matter of public record.

The first two steps in the process can be done prior to election day. The next step is to tabulate the vote. Votes are only tabulated after 8:00 pm on election day.

San Juan County uses Verity voting tabulation equipment and software provided by Hart Intercivic, a Texas-based company that has been making voting equipment since 1912. Fourteen other counties in the State also use Hart Intercivic voting equipment.

The fourth step is to review the results and upload the information to the San Juan County election results webpage and to the Office of the Secretary of State in Olympia. A key security measure is that the voting tabulation equipment is never connected to the internet or a computer network. A sealed USB drive provided by the State is used to export data from the Verity equipment to an office computer, which is then used to relay the tabulation information to the Secretary of State’s office. This electronic report is backed-up and verified by a cumulative report that is both printed and delivered by email.

Another reassuring aspect of the voting process in San Juan County is that state law requires that the tabulation of votes can be tied back to paper ballots. State law also requires that each county election office retain the paper ballots for a period of up to two years. The actual time depends on the election. For a general election, the ballots are retained for the full two years. After the votes have been tabulated, the paper ballots are locked up and kept in storage for the mandatory period of 24 months. This is the fifth and final step in the process.

As election day approaches, theOrcasonian will continue to provide updated information on election procedures and voter participation. And we will also provide the latest election results as they become available on election night and in the days to follow.

VOTE!