About 60 employees work out of a trio of warehouses at the Mottman Industrial Park, the location of Thurston County’s ballot processing center, in this photo taken in early March as presidential primary ballots were processed.
A machine sorts ballots for the presidential primary by precinct earlier this year at Thurston County’s ballot processing center.
With ballots out for the March 10 presidential primary, staff at Thurston County Auditor’s Office’s Elections Division have already started counting those that have been returned by early voters.
On Wednesday, Feb. 26, in a small 13,000-square-foot warehouse in the Mottman Industrial Park, about 60 employees with the county opened, sifted through, organized, scrutinized and tabulated the ballots that have been mailed in thus far.
Sixteen cameras located around the warehouse keep a watch on workers and the process, all from overhead angles.
It may sound like something out of 1984, but most workers seem to go about their business in a content and focused manner.
“That protects us,” Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall told the Nisqually Valley News during a recent public tour of the facility, adding in that the cameras retain footage for as long as the ballots are retained at the facility. “If someone accuses us of doing something nefarious, we can say, ‘hey, come look at our footage.’”
In short, it’s just one of many efforts Thurston County Elections has taken to ensure every vote is counted and that the process is as transparent as possible.
From the floor of the processing center, Hall said her staff is really passionate about the process and noted that viewing them is watching democracy in action.
As of Feb. 26, Hall said voter turnout is hovering at around 9 percent — a decent number considering where Washington state is within the election process on a national scale.
“I think we’ve had some decent turnout,” said Hall, now in her third term as county auditor.
With Super Tuesday set for March 3 — the nation’s largest one-day contest for the presidential primary with 14 states holding elections — Hall said she believes many are keeping their ballots longer to see if their Democratic favorite will hold on long enough to make it to Washington’s contest.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has surged in early contests thus far.
A poll conducted earlier this month by Crosscut-Elway, which was published on Feb. 26, shows Sanders leading the pack with 21 percent of the vote, although 22 percent were polled as “undecided.” The poll sampled 404 likely voters in the Democratic Presidential Primary.
On the Republican side, President Donald Trump will almost certainly get the nomination.
Over the last couple weeks, as voters have received their ballots in the mail, one fact has drawn controversy — mandatory party declaration.
In order for your vote to count this March, political parties and ballot processors are requiring voters across the state to declare their allegiance to the political party of the candidate for which they’re voting.
Hall said Thurston County Elections has received a large number of ballots without a signed party declaration envelope. Almost 800 of the 18,000 ballots they’ve counted so far haven’t declared a party.
“Voters are up in arms, but this was the same envelope four years ago,” Hall said.
She added that local auditors’ offices are only acting on the direction of the political parties.
“We’re the punching bags,” Hall said with a smirk.
For voters who turn in their ballots without a signature or party choice, Hall said her department sends out a letter addendum to their listed residence asking for one, the other or both.
The process for counting ballots with Thurston County is clear. Emmett O’Connell, outreach and education specialist at the auditor’s office, said ballots are processed through a linear process, despite the hectic appearance of the center’s floor.
Ballots can only move forward through these processes — not backwards — although sometimes they might be stalled for one reason or another.
After ballots are securely picked up, they go through the intake process, which consists of sorting by party and precinct before each ballot’s signature is verified with previous copies.
“That’s what makes vote by mail so secure. It’s really like a fingerprint,” Hall said.
By the time a ballot is possibly rejected for its signature, it has been through six examinations, Hall said.
After this first hurdle, those that have passed scrutiny go on to ballot inspection. During this step, election staff disassembles the packaged ballot to ensure voter secrecy and inspects the ballot for scanner readability.
If a ballot passes this phase, then it is stored along with others in its precinct for tabulation. During storage, unaccompanied access by anyone is prohibited.
Ballots are then scanned by a machine, held for tabulation and archived according to the state’s retention schedule.
There are multiple diversions a ballot can encounter that require additional work election staff within the process to ensure the ballot is in a suitable condition for tabulation.
Hall said she invites anyone from the public interested in seeing how ballots are processed in Thurston County to contact her office. For more information, contact the Thurston County Auditor’s Office at 360-786-5408.
