GOP leaders question ballot security

Spokane-area GOP leaders are so leery of the county’s new mail-in voting system they want assurances that election observers will be given greater access while monitoring ballot counting.

“The party feels that citizen observation is absolutely necessary considering the systemic lack of ballot security in the mail-in system,” Jim Robinson, a state committeeman and member of the Spokane County Republican Party, wrote in an Oct. 16 letter to county Commissioner Phil Harris. Robinson also is critical of how the elections office has treated observers in the past.

But while the county’s voting system has indeed undergone big changes, Democrats question the timing of the Republican Party’s complaints, particularly since the GOP challenger for county auditor has campaigned hard on a platform of restoring Election Day polling sites.

“I’ve never had any issue from anybody relative to the observation process,” said Spokane County Democratic Party Chairwoman Sharon Smith, who suggested the GOP concerns are politically motivated. “If anything, I think they err on the side of caution to make sure they can defend the appropriate counts.”

Moreover, former Republican Party officials who have served as election observers say they’ve been generally satisfied with the process in Spokane County.

“This elections office works very hard to accommodate observers,” said Robin Ball, former county GOP chairwoman.

Robinson did not return calls this week seeking further comment on his letter.

Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton, who runs the county election office and is facing an aggressive challenge from Republican Mike Volz, strongly disagrees with any suggestion that there’s a lack of security in the new all-mail-in system and says observers will be allowed to watch all the steps – as they always have.

Still, ballot handling had already begun for the general election before the county provided its first observer training for the Nov. 7 contest. At the Thursday morning session, Dalton helped train a group of 10 people, mostly Republicans, who expressed interest in serving as observers.

“You’re here as part of that independent verification of what we do,” Dalton said. “The more observers, the better.”

Republican volunteer Laurel Durkee came to the training out of concern for the new mail-in system. Afterward, she said she feels better about security, though she still prefers poll sites.

“It looks to me like they’re doing an excellent job to ensure the integrity of the whole process,” Durkee said.

The system

Volunteer election observers usually are affiliated with a political party or candidate and are nothing new to elections. But their roles have shifted with an all-mail-in election system.

When all people voted on the same day, observers were needed only for a few days. But with absentees, ballots are handled for weeks.

And there are new processes to oversee: verifying voters’ signatures, opening the envelopes, opening security envelopes and storing the ballots – which started Thursday when the first nine ballots were returned. That’s on top of the traditional oversight roles of watching tests on voting machines to ensure they correctly tabulate votes and the actual counting that starts Election Day.

To oversee the entire process, several observers would be needed during the whole election season because when the ballots start returning in high volumes, some duties are done at the same time in different rooms in the elections office. For instance, up to seven elections workers at a time verify signatures on computer screens, while in another room, ballots are opened and sorted.

Although the law requires that observers be allowed to watch as long as they have been trained, the handling of ballots doesn’t stop if they don’t show. Dalton said parties and candidates are informed of the option but rarely attend. During last month’s primary election, two people observed election equipment being tested, but no one watched the rest of the process.

Ball said the observation process is more important in the mail-in system because elections workers have more responsibilities. At poll sites, poll workers took voter signatures and starting in 2005, checked IDs. Now, employees with forensic training must check the signatures on every envelope returned. Ball said she’s less concerned about fraud than she is about human error.

“This is certainly going to increase the burden on the elections office just because of sheer volume, you have a greater risk of mistakes being made,” Ball said.

Robinson’s letter makes several recommendations for changing the observation process. For instance, he requests that the ballot storage area be filmed in real time on the Internet. Dalton responds that the storage area is secure and filmed with a security camera.

“In past elections, volunteers have been required to stay so far back from those counting as to make it almost impossible to see what is taking place,” Robinson wrote.

Dalton said she is confused by that complaint because observers are required only to stay at an arm’s length from the ballots, well within view.

The mail-in debate

An election commission led by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III didn’t take a stand on the legitimacy of mail-in elections, but mentioned some drawbacks

“It raises concerns about privacy, as citizens voting at home may come under pressure to vote for certain candidates, and it increases the risks of fraud,” says the 2005 Carter-Baker report.

Volz, who is trying to unseat Dalton, says he supports a second citizen advisory vote on the mail-in system. Last year, voters recommended that county commissioners abolish poll sites, a result that led to today’s all mail-in system.

“Choice is the biggest issue, but some people would choose it because it’s safer,” Volz said. “My wife votes by mail and has for years. I’m a poll site voter.”

Dalton says the tide already had turned. About 75 percent of voters cast ballots by mail even when poll sites were available. Returning to the two-system process would increase headaches and not eliminate the perceived problems of the mail-in election, she said. Furthermore, most other counties in the state also have eliminated poll sites.