SPOKANE, Wash — When it comes to elections, there is nothing more important than ensuring each vote is counted accurately. Several viewers reached out to the KREM 2 Verify team wanting to know how they can be sure their ballot is safe. To get the answer, our Verify team went straight to the source.
For more than 20 years Vicky Dalton has served as Spokane County Auditor. She’s in charge of elections, ensuring they are secure and accurate. With more than 300,000 registered voters in Spokane County, it’s a huge task with zero margin for error. Dalton says their system of collecting, sorting, and counting ballots is proven to work
"We have done so many recounts over the years that have shown that our results are accurate," Dalton explained.
As ballots come into the office, they’re sent through a machine that scans a bar code, sorts them by precinct, and snaps a picture of each signature.
If the signatures match, the ballots are removed from the security envelope and are prepared to be counted. If there’s an issue with a signature, or the voter forgot to sign the envelope, the elections office will contact the voter with how to move forward. A process called, curing.
The ballots are then inspected and placed into trays sorted by precinct, before being sent to a secure room to be counted.
"So, those trays on racks will go into that room and they’ll go through the door behind to go into the tabulation," Dalton explained. "And all of those doors are locked and sealed.”
The tabulation room sits behind locked doors. The doors require key cards from two authorized people to open and a red tab similar to a zip tie tells workers if the doors have been opened. Anyone who enters the room must sign in. Everything is tracked.
"We want to know if anything has happened," Dalton said. "For one, it’s a deterrent, it keeps people from trying anything. Two, if something does happen then we know it’s happened.“
Since it’s a secure room, our Verify team is not able to show where the ballots are tabulated. But, Dalton said to think of it as a large scanner. It's not wifi-enabled, so it can’t be hacked. And, it's not part of any outside network so it can’t be breached. State law dictates that election workers can process the ballots before election night, but they can’t hit tabulate to see the results until 8 p.m. on election night.
And, speaking of election night – those initial results are by no means final.
"Election night results are not final results," Dalton said. "In fact, traditionally – or based on historical numbers – what we release on election night represents only about 50% of the total ballots that we will receive and count.”
Dalton said the election results won't be certified until two to three weeks after election day.
Now in her 7th and final term as auditor, Dalton said their system of collecting, sorting, and counting ballots works well and that voters should have confidence in the results.
”I think vote by mail is an excellent system and an excellent process," she said. "It is safe, it is secure and we are able to produce accurate results that are truly the vote of the people.”
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