By The Herald Editorial Board
Maybe an interior designer would think the feng shui is off; data and power cables in plain sight snake from computers, servers and monitors across tables and up and down walls and across ceilings; air-conditioning ducts are exposed overhead; chain-link fencing secures areas behind locks. The vibe is more industrial than executive.
Everything is exposed, visible, transparent and secured.
And that’s the idea, said Garth Fell, Snohomish County auditor, as he led a tour of the county’s new $8.6 million elections center at the county administration building. Seeing the cables — where they start and where they end — helps make the point that the ones and zeroes read from each ballot stay in that room, as does the lack of an eye-pleasing drop ceiling in the space. The floors’ computers are air-gapped; there’s no internet connection to the outside world. Nothing is getting in except ballots — via a dedicated elevator that only goes to the third-floor center — and nothing except the vote tallies are getting out.
The election center, given a public tour last month, is getting its premiere run during the primary election; already ballots are being brought in, prepared and counted prior to announcement of the first results when polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday. (By the way, you have until then to return your ballot.)
The increased participation and flood of ballots — the county has nearly 510,000 registered voters — in presidential election years meant that the county auditor’s office would have to lease space outside the county administrative campus to process ballots, tally votes and tabulate results. The additional transportation for ballots and leasing of space meant increased costs for the office every four years and added to concerns about the transparency of the process, the security of ballots and the effects on voters’ trust.
“Every time we would lease it, it was about $500,000, and then we’d have to add in additional tenant improvements, so it was roughly a million (dollars) in cost every four years,” Fell said. “And then in the end, we’d have to take everything down, bring it back here and figure out where we were going to store everything.”
Because of the continuing shift to remote work for many county employees, the county was able to identify available space that allowed for the third floor of the administration building to be cleared for the new elections center, allowing the election office about 70,000 square feet to consolidate its operations and do so in a manner that is highly visible and more secure for those wishing to observe the operations.
Windows and glass walls frame a hallway that loops the perimeter of the floor, allowing for clear views of all aspects of ballot processing and counting, from the checking of signatures, to machine counting, to tabulation.
Moving the election operations to a separate floor also allowed the auditor’s office, which offers several services, to renovate the first-floor office, providing more room for the public. During the 2020 presidential election, the last-minute rush for same-day voter registration meant the line for service snaked out the door and into the courtyard. Now, Fell said, more people will be able to wait more comfortably inside, as well as vote with the privacy of the office’s voting booths.
Fell — even as activity ramps up for election day and the work that follows until the election is certified — is encouraging voters and others to visit the election center and get a sense for the process and the security that has been built into the county’s election process. That transparency and visibility are key to the integrity of the county’s elections.
“When you can physically come here, see the separation that we’ve created between observing spaces and work spaces. See the technology we’re using. See how people are doing the actual work, I think all of that should build confidence in our work for those who visit,” Fell said.
The doubts regarding election integrity and allegations of voter fraud that have been thrown against local elections systems and officials in recent years are difficult to combat when armed only with denials and assurances. That explains the efforts and investments to bring the public in to act as observers, to watch the process for themselves and gain trust in elections.
Those observers then can defend the election process when those who are misinformed or even have ulterior motives make baseless allegations of systemic voter fraud and rigged elections.
In a recent report, the Union of Concerned Scientists said that election disinformation was expected to be an even bigger problem this year than it was in 2020, when false claims of election fraud — maintained to this day by Donald Trump and others — tainted the confidence in an election that was determined by independent observers, government officials, judges and others to be among the most secure and accurate ever run.
The solution, the report said, lies in the public’s access to the election system and its data.
“Publicly accessible and transparent election data is critical to improving our elections, increasing public trust in elections, and preventing future attempts to steal elections,” the report concludes.
Fell, as are other election officials, is taking that direction seriously.
“We want to make sure that we’re doing all we can to have a secure, robust, transparent process that people will have confidence in,” Fell said. “I want people to leave with the same level of confidence in the system that I have. And I think the only way we’re going to do that is by continuing to create doors and windows and opportunities for people to see how this thing works.”
See for yourself
To learn more about visiting Snohomish County’s Election Center and observing the election, go to tinyurl.com/SnoCoElectionObserve.
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