By The Herald Editorial Board
For an election as consequential and as potentially close in many races as next Tuesday’s is, some level of uncertainty among voters — if not anxiety — should probably be expected.
That uncertainty in years past centered mainly around the results of races. Yet, if your candidate didn’t win, well, there was always the next election to pin hopes and efforts on.
Increasingly, however, especially after claims of election and voter fraud were made regarding the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, doubts about all levels of elections and voting system — even as those allegations of fraud and widespread “irregularities” were repeatedly and consistently debunked and disproved — now seem baked into the season.
Any lack of confidence in elections — from voter registration and access to voting, to casting ballots, to their counting and tabluation — threatens the keystone for all levels of our representative democracy.
And there is some good news there; recent polling by the Pew Research Center shows that most voters are confident that nationwide elections are well run, with 73 percent responding that elections were either very or somewhat well run, compared to 27 percent finding elections run either not too well or not at all well. Confidence increases when the same voters are asked about the administration of elections in their own communities; at 92 percent for the coming election, up 2 points from confidence prior to the 2020 election.
However, levels of confidence shifted depending on who respondents support in the presidential race, either Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump; Pew reported 90 percent of Harris supporters saw elections as well run; only 57 percent of Trump supporters did so. Similar splits were seen among the two groups regarding confidence in a clear winner, in mail-in ballots’ accuracy and election systems’ protections against hacking and other threats.
This is a relatively recent shift, Pew found, noting reviews of previous surveys. As recently as 2018, supporters of Republican candidates were 8 percentage points more likely than supporters of Democratic candidates to expect that year’s midterm elections would be run well. By 2020, Joe Biden’s supporters were 22 points more likely than Trump’s to expect a smoothly run election. That gap has now grown to 33 percentage points between the Harris and Trump camps.
That gap has increased concerns for the safety of ballots and election workers, as reported Friday by The Herald’s Will Geschke and Jordan Hansen, with wider nationwide concerns for conspiracy theories and election-related violence.
In response, election officials at all levels have worked and made investments to reassure all voters as to the security and integrity of their votes and in the systems used to count ballots and report and certify elections results.
At the state level, that’s been underway for several years with efforts started under former Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman and continued by current Democratic Secretary of State Steve Hobbs with the state’s online VoteWA system to administer state voter registration and allow voters to confirm acceptance of their ballots, among other efforts to provide greater transparency, voting access and security.
More locally, it includes a significant $8.6 million investment by Snohomish County in the County Auditor’s elections center, which consolidated the office’s ballot processing, counting and tabulation operations, emphasizing transparency for public observers with a windowed corridor around work stations and offering a clear view of every step. Data and power cables snake from computers, servers and monitors across tables and up and down walls and across ceilings in plain sight; air-conditioning ducts are exposed overhead; chain-link fencing secures ballot storage areas behind locks.
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, and not until after voting concludes at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
One recent visitor to the center said she was impressed with the center’s considerations for transparency and a full view of the process.
“It doesn’t even have a drop ceiling,” said Angela Di Filippo, vice chair of the Snohomish County Human Rights Commission, who toured the center with others on the commission, out of its interest in voting rights.
“You can watch everything that’s happening from that corridor,” she said, and displays in the corridor explain the process. “It clearly details what’s happening. The focus is on answering questions and concerns about the ballots.”
Yet there are also concerns in the ballots’ journey to and from a voter’s hands to the election center, as seen in reports of arsons at ballot boxes in Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., earlier this week; as well as reports of unmarked ballots found strewn along a Whidbey Island road and Whitman County voters who didn’t initially receive ballots mailed to their Post Office boxes.
In the case of the removal of unmarked ballots from mail boxes, it’s most likely the result of mail theft, with the thief then discarding the ballots, said Snohomish County Auditor Garth Fell.
“One of the benefits of our system in Washington state is we have ways that people can track the delivery of their ballot, so they can see if it’s out for delivery and be aware. So if it doesn’t show up, they can then circle back to their county auditor or elections office and get their ballot reissued even up until election night,” he said.
As for the fires, most states using ballot drop boxes have invested in security systems, including fire suppression to protect ballots. The fire suppression system worked for the drop box in Portland, but failed in Vancouver, with more than 100 ballots destroyed, but election officials there worked to notify voters who might have used that box, in order to issue replacement ballots, Fell said.
Fell called the arsons “a heinous act.”
“It’s meant to discourage people from participating in elections,” he said. “So I would just encourage people to push against that and make sure that their voices are heard this election, and get out and vote,” he said.
Election officials, he said, have put some thought in what protections are necessary for the ballot boxes, yet, he said, people can have confidence in using the drop boxes, backed by voters’ ability to check to see that their ballot has been received and accepted.
Local voters who are returning ballots through the mail can also have assurance in doing so, he said. Fell said the election office talks regularly with local postal officials, and ballots are arriving as expected with no delays, he said.
Whether by mail or drop box, Fell is encouraging voters to get the ballots in as soon as possible.
“The more they do, the more robust our results are on election night,” Fell said. “It certainly saves them the inconvenience of getting stuck in traffic or being delayed by other life events that might happen between now and Election Day.”
And why add any anxiety to Election Day?
All about the ballot
Interested in learning more about how ballots are handled and the election process?
The public is invited to tour the Snohomish County Elections Center. Find out more at tinyurl.com/SnoCoElexExplained.
Learn more about Washington state’s election systems at tinyurl.com/WaMarkTheBallot.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
