Voters’ faith needs to be restored

I am writing to express my concern over recently published articles in The Herald regarding the Snohomish County elections department.

Like many people, I am always amazed at just how few people cast ballots. Now I have to wonder just how many more people voted but whose ballots weren’t counted due to the technical limitations of the system. Every voter casts their vote in good faith that the vote will be counted. What are the checks and balances in place for computerized voting systems?

This issue compounds other issues that Snohomish County citizens have endured lately, such as the lost postal bags of absentee ballots discovered a month after the election, voters pamphlets with incomplete sections, and costly ballot printing mistakes. Each of these instances seems to be an isolated issue, but when collectively viewed we should be alarmed.

The fact that the election’s outcome was not altered after all the votes were counted is irrelevant and very lucky. The elections department needs to be held accountable for the integrity of the voting process. There should be a large audience of citizens at the public meeting on Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. Elections involve large sums of tax dollars and, most importantly, our only forum to bring about change. Our faith needs to be restored.

Everett