Space shortage slows county elections vote count

 

November 23, 2022

Photo courtesy of Skagit County auditor

ENSURING AN ACCURATE COUNT – La Conner's Sybil Jenson was on hand at the Skagit County elections

Skagit County Auditor Sandy Perkins has given election workers a ringing endorsement for their yeoman work processing tens of thousands of mail-in ballots.

But there's still room for improvement, she and elections supervisor Gabrielle Clay insist.

Only they are speaking in literal terms and not in reference to job performance.

"We need more space," Perkins explained during an hour-long interview with the Weekly News last Thursday as the Nov. 8 election votes continued to be counted under the watchful eyes of volunteer observers from both major political parties.

Cramped in a small, secure work area in the Skagit County Courthouse Annex in Mount Vernon – built in the 1970s prior to the advent of large modern ballot sorting and scanning machines – the number of staff and observers is limited by lack of space, Perkins and Clay said.

"We'd love to have space for more observers," Perkins said. "There's so much disinformation and misinformation out there regarding how the (ballot counting) process works. So, we'd love to have additional observers.

"It would be great to have more observers," said Clay, whose office used to be in a storage closet. "That way they can see what's happening."

"Everyone who has been here as an observer," Perkins added, "has said they hadn't realized how much work goes into this. They tell us, 'you folks do a great job.'"

Perkins plans to again lobby Skagit County commissioners for increased room, a 2023 or future budget request.

"We need more space," she repeated. "I tell that to them every time we meet with them."

On Saturdays, when the auditor's office is closed to regular business, workers can spread out into a hallway. That option is not possible Monday-Friday due to ballot security requirements and the public needing access to the records desk and other services within the auditor's office.

Perkins and Clay are somewhat envious of their colleagues in Benton County, in eastern Washington, where officials have secured a spacious former Chuck-E-Cheese pizza restaurant to process ballots.

"Most people aren't aware of all the steps involved after a ballot has been placed in a drop-box or put in the mail," Clay noted. "They don't see what needs to be done. We're just working the best we can with the space we've got."

"It's quite a step-by-step process," Perkins said. "Even with all the new technology, many aspects of the process are manual."

It's a process that Perkins said election officials from other states repeatedly praise.

"They say we have one of the best systems in the nation," she said.

Washington state began shifting toward vote-by-mail nearly 40 years ago. In 1983, the state allowed mail ballots for special elections. In 2005, legislators in Olympia cleared the way for mail-in voting in all elections but left it up to the counties to decide. All except Pierce County were quick to embrace the vote-by-mail format.

Eleven years ago, state lawmakers, in order to establish a uniform voting system, passed legislation calling upon all counties to conduct mail-in voting.

The system is anchored by a multi-tiered process designed to assure that ballots are safe and secure before, during and after an election.

Prior to every election cycle, counties test their voting systems to make sure machines are set up correctly and will accurately count votes.

"My work," Clay said, "actually starts a couple months before each election."

Voters sign an oath swearing their eligibility to vote. Each voter's signature is compared to the signature in their voter registration file to confirm identity and eligibility.

Once a ballot is verified, its status is updated to "Accepted." The ballot is then opened and separated from its signature envelope and grouped with other ballots to be scanned. Ballots are scanned as they are processed and accepted through the voting period, with tabulation beginning after polls close on Election Day.

A large percentage of ballots flood in on Election Day, said Perkins.

"One of the political parties has encouraged its voters to only vote on Election Day," she said, "so we end up playing catchup. Fifty per cent of the ballots are returned on Election Day or the weekend before.

"Then," she chuckled, "everybody wants to know why we can't get 20,000 ballots done immediately."

The front end of the ballot counting process is enhanced by a $250,000 ballot sorter and scanning machine, an investment funded by a federal grant.

"It didn't cost local taxpayers anything," Perkins stressed.

The machine is capable of handling 14,000 ballots per hour, but as Clay points out, Skagit County doesn't receive all its ballots at the same time over the course of an 18-day voting period.

The Catch-22 is that the machine requires a good chunk of the limited workspace available to election workers.

Perkins said she has suggested the county acquire vacant space at the Cascade Mall for ballot processing.

"I haven't gotten much traction on that," she conceded.

Clay said the preference is to obtain a permanent rather than temporary site.

"If it's something that's just temporary," said Clay, "then we'd have to be moving all our equipment."

"We need a permanent space," Perkins agreed.

Especially, she and Clay said, because significant population growth and related major expansion of voter rolls are anticipated.

"We expect the population in Skagit County will be 150,000 to 170,000 at some point in the future," Clay said. "So, we would like to secure a space that's a long-term solution and not be in a situation where after five years we'd have to come back and ask for more space again."

In the meantime, election workers will continue to soldier on, said Perkins.

"Everybody has been working really, really hard," she said. "They've done an outstanding job."

 

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