Burke: With all we can worry about, ballots not one of them
Published 1:30 am Monday, October 26, 2020
By Tom Burke / Herald columnist
This ain’t a political column. I’m not handicapping the election, prognosticating down-ballot races, or suggesting how folks should vote.
First, there’s been more than enough of that already. Plus it’s really too late: Minds are mostly made up and many have already voted! (I will, however, report some facts: Biden leads Trump by 10 points nationally. Biden leads in battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona. Actual experts say Trump’s incompetence killed thousands of Americans among the more than 220,000 dead. His failures have shredded the economy. And he lies. About everything. Especially the coronavirus pandemic. Readers can make of all that what they will.)
What this is; is a discussion about ballot security and intimidation.
To be sure, we do not face the same voting threat levels (coronavirus and intimidation) others face as we vote by mail (and have since 2006). So worry about gun-toting militias, Boogaloo or Proud Boys staking out a polling place is limited.
But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t see armed citizens at drop boxes or that officials aren’t concerned about ballot security. They are. (Me too.)
So I spoke with Garth Fell, the Snohomish County auditor (the guy in charge of elections), about how things work and his suggestions regardings this year’s voting. Based on our conversation, and other research, here’s the top line:
• Voting by mail is perfectly safe. (My comment: Mail early. Do you really trust Trump’s postmaster to “deliver” your ballot if you procrastinate?)
• Voting via a drop box is perfectly safe. (Fell’s folks work real hard to keep it that way; drop boxes are emptied at least daily; all ballots are handled by pairs of county employees; trained people verify signatures very, very carefully; ballots are stored in guarded security cages; and the general public is free to watch the process (but no more than 10 at a time in the facility, masks must be worn, social distancing observed, there is no “touching” the ballots, observers cannot interact [talk/challenge] with folks while they are working, and both private county-contracted security and public law enforcement will be patrolling the drop boxes.)
There’s never been (to date) any mischief with drop boxes. Perhaps a bit of tagging, but nothing that would affect voting.
• Folks are voting at a prodigious rate: in past elections about 11 percent of people voted at this point, this year, as of Friday, it’s nearly 33 percent, countywide.
• Authorities recognize this election’s level of intensity is higher than ever, which could make folks anxious; so a primary goal is to reassure people the system is secure, there’s no fraud and your ballot will be counted. Oh, and there’s one more thing: Vote. Early.
For me, having worked the polls in a bunch of Maryland elections, there’s still a level of anxiety I can’t shake. There’s been too much Trump B.S. about voting and how if he don’t win it was all a fraud. And he’s urged militias to “stand by.”
So I did some checking:
• From Garth Fell: if anyone sees/perceives an immediate threat or access being hindered, call 911. (If it’s a non-emergency, contact the county.)
• Militias in Washington state are illegal. And if you see what appears to be “militia” near a drop box, according to Georgetown University’s Law Center, you should: note what they are doing; if they are armed (with firearms or other weapons); what they are wearing; if they are carrying flags or wearing insignias, if they are “patrolling” ala real law enforcement; if there’s an apparent leader; if they are stopping people; if they’re provoking or threatening violence; or if they are turning folks away from depositing their ballot; and call 911!
I think it’s much more likely we’ll read about this rather than experience it at, say, the drop box in front of the QVC in Bothell.
Here in Washington we’ve proven that vote-by-mail works; it ain’t a fraud; and all the president’s crap is just that, crap.
One last note: A reader suggested I sort of update a 2017 column written just before Trump took the oath. I listed all his campaign promises and suggested a system of metrics to determine his success; staking out how well he’d need to do versus what he promised to do.
The results in 2020: he failed miserably. Take just five big Trump promises: more jobs (lost 3.9 million in 4 years), reduce the federal deficit (now $3.1 trillion, biggest in history), rebuild infrastructure (Zero, Zip, Nothing), deliver health care (he’s suing to end the ACA and its protections), and build a wall (4 new miles in four years).
And then there are the more than 220,000 headstones — with the names of mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and co-workers — etched in stone and dated 2020 that are the real markers of his abject failure. And that ain’t politics, it’s just facts.
See ya after Nov. 3. I wonder what it will be like.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
