Grays Harbor County on pace to break voting records

Published 3:30 pm Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Over 62 million voters have cast their ballots in the United States thus far, and Grays Harbor County registered voters have done their part to contribute to that unprecedented trend.

As of the close of business Monday, more than 40 percent of Grays Harbor’s voters had already returned them, according to Grays Harbor County Auditor Joesph MacLean.

Of the 48,588 total registered voters in the county, election officials have collected 20,663 ballots thus far (42.5%).

MacLean estimated that another 4,000-5,000 ballots were still in ballot boxes across the county and are scheduled for pick up on Tuesday the 27th. If those numbers are correct, it would push the total percentage of overall ballots returned to over 50% with approximately one week left until the day of the election.

By comparison, the total return for the county in the 2016 general election, which is the current high mark, was 29,812 votes. That number represented a 73.55% turnout. If the pattern of heavy volume of returned ballots continues, 2016’s total number of votes will be surpassed by the end of the week.

“This is over double what we would normally have at this point,” MacLean said. “We’re expecting a 90% turnout.”

The high voter turnout has coincided with a large volume of phone calls the auditor’s office has received as the election draws near. MacLean stated his staff fields anywhere from 300-500 phone calls per day in addition to processing ballots.

“It has greatly impacted our office,” he said. “My two full-time staff members (election administrator and voter registration employee) are answering phones constantly and we’ve also tasked two of our non-permanent staff, our two election workers to answer the phones. That has been helping. I am still answering about 100 phone calls a day.”

MacLean explained that most of the calls are for requests for replacement ballots and calls for ballots that came with a sealed return envelope. MacLean explained that the latter is due to wet weather and moisture in the air.

“That’s just because of the moisture in the area,” he said. “We ask them to open it back up and if they are able to get it sealed shut, great. If not, they can tape it shut (preferably with clear tape).”

MacLean also reported that his office is getting a high number of voters calling in to ask why their status update is not showing on the website. He explained the new Agilis Ballot Sorting Machine used to process ballots was in the process of getting a secure data connection to the office of the Washington Secretary of State, Kim Wyman, “to transmit the data that the ballot was received and to upload the signatures back into the system for the signature verification process.”

“That process didn’t get completed until Friday morning,” MacLean said. “Now, pretty much as we start running (ballots) through the machine, the next morning you’ll see a status change.

“It was a matter of getting that secure connection completed and to guarantee our process is secure and that we’re not getting tampered with,” he said. “The machines themselves are air-gapped from the internet so they cannot transmit the data directly.”

Processed ballots will show a status of “Received” once it arrives at the election facility and will change to “Accepted” once the ballot’s signature has been verified. A status of “Hold” means a second ballot was issued and has to be returned and verified, often because the signature on the original ballot didn’t match or the ballot was unsigned. Of the 20,663 ballots received thus far, 328 were either unsigned or had signatures that didn’t match.

MacLean noted the signature verification process as one of the features of Washington state mail-in voting that shows the system is more mature when compared to states that are new to handling widespread mail-in voting. His staff is trained by the Washington State Patrol Forensic Analysis Division in signature verification.

“Most of my staff has gone through it a minimum of two times and one of my staff members has gone through it probably 100 times,” MacLean affirmed, adding that all ballots go through a signature verification check by trained personnel in his office before the vote is counted.

MacLean also added that the public is welcome to come and view ballot processing procedures any time after 9 a.m. until the process is complete for that given day. He stated political parties and candidates are also invited to be “observers,” which is the mail-in voting equivalent to “poll-watchers.” The actual votes are not tallied until election day.

“We have had some coordination from observers,” he said. “The Republican Party has been here every day since we started receiving ballots. … We’ve had some private individuals who have stopped by to observe the process and anybody is welcome to come by and observe the process.”

MacLean added that he did reach out to Democratic Party representatives to offer to have one of their representatives come and observe the process, but he had yet to hear back from them at the time of this writing.

Up to two party observers are allowed at a time and are allowed in the processing room while non-political party observers can view the process from a viewing area adjacent to the processing area.

MacLean makes frequent trips across the county to collect ballots from ballot boxes in the area. His expectations of a high turnout were given credence when he visited the Montesano ballot box five days after ballots were first mailed out.

“The return in the ballot boxes has been phenomenal,” he said, adding that he is emptying the ballot boxes more frequently than normal due to the sheer volume of votes. “That (Montesano) ballot box was so full that there was so much pressure on the back door that it was hard to turn the key. Once we were able to get it open, we filled three big totes and one big bag that we brought back to the office. … I figure it was probably about 2,500-3,000 ballots were in that box. … So people are listening to the news about voting early and returning their ballots early, which is great for all of us because we have better results on election night when this happens.”