Amid an increased interest in election security, several dozen people have volunteered to be election observers in Clallam County for the Nov. 8, election, far more than in past years, according to election staff.
“This year we had approximately 70 people who took the observer training,” said Shoona Riggs, Clallam County auditor, who oversees the local election process. “Typically we get between 8 and 15.”
The situation is different in the neighboring county of Jefferson.
Quinn Grewell, Jefferson County election coordinator, said that the auditor’s office hasn’t heard concerns about election security recently.
She has not seen a large increase in the number of people wanting to be observers.
Observers can be affiliated with a political party or nonpartisan, Riggs said, and this year the majority of the observers were from the Republican Party, though the Democrats had large numbers as well.
Nonpartisan observers are coordinated by the League of Women Voters of Clallam County, Riggs said.
Observers watch election officials while they process returned ballots, which includes counting ballots and verifying voter signatures, and must attend training sessions with election officials.
Alan Lynn, chair of the Clallam County Republican Party’s Election Integrity Committee, said the party had 67 people trained and available to serve as observers, including himself, though not all of those were trained over the summer.
Many of the people who went through the summer’s training were previous election observers who were being retrained, Lynn said, while others were newcomers who wanted to witness the process for themselves despite any controversy in the media.
Lynn said part of the concern arose from average citizens not having full access to the election process.
“It’s really difficult for common citizens to see the process,” Lynn said. “Most people don’t really understand how a ballot’s processed and what kind of security there is for it.”
Going through the training and observing the primary election has made Lynn feel more comfortable about the local election process, he said, but he and others still had some concerns they’d like to see addressed, such as he said, during the signature verification process, computer monitors being used by Clallam County election observers are not visible to observers.
Lynn said county officials have been accommodating to observers’ concerns and thanked Riggs specifically. It was Republican Party observers that had requested the livestream cameras in the elections office run 24-hours a day rather than just business hours.
“We’re very happy that the cameras are there 24/7,” Lynn said.
Lynn urged voters to watch the process for themselves online, and to track their ballot using the state’s VoteWa.gov website.
Riggs maintains that Washington state and Clallam County’s election processes are secure, and said there are several layers of security in the process.
Riggs said election officials must be trained in signature verification by the Washington State Patrol, and that voter signatures are compared against signatures on file with the county and the state. New staff who have been only recently trained in signature verification must be paired with more experience staff members during the process, Riggs said.
If election officials come across a signature on a ballot that doesn’t match what’s on file, Riggs said staff will attempt to contact that voter to make sure the signature is genuine.
All the state’s counties work with the Washington Secretary of State’s office to maintain voter databases and oversee election security protocols, and voter tabulation machines must undergo independent testing before each election, according to the office’s election security webpage.
“We do have a lot of things that are talking back and forth,” Riggs said. “We’re working that daily to keep those (voter) rolls as clean as possible.”
Clallam County Democratic Party volunteer Marion Burns said she has been an observer for the past five years, and has seen an increased interest in observing election vote-counting from Democrats.
Burns said at least 21 Democratic volunteers had gone through the summer’s training.
“People are quite upset with the idea that the (election) workers who are doing their duty are being harassed,” Burns said. “There are some people who are saying they don’t want to do it because they are saying they are being harassed.”
The Associated Press reported that an increase in the number of threats and harassment against election officials has led to a shortage of poll workers across the nation. Many Republican candidates across the country have repeated the false claim, promoted by former President Donald Trump, that the 2020 election was stolen, AP reported.
Burns too complimented Riggs and the Clallam County election staff, whom she said often took time to explain the process to observers.
“She and (Clallam County Elections Manager Susan Johnson) run a very tight ship,” Burns said.
Ballots were mailed to registered voters on Wednesday. Ballots must be returned or postmarked by 8 p.m. Nov. 8.
Online voter registration is available until Oct. 31, after which registration must be done in person at local elections offices. Online registration and ballot tracking once a ballot has been returned is available at VoteWa.gov.
Jefferson County offers livestreaming of ballot processing available at its website, however, livestreaming is only available while work is in progress.
Clallam County’s livestream is online and available at the auditor’s office website.
The Peninsula Daily News voter guide is the C-Section in today’s newspaper.
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at peter.segall@peninsuladailynews.com
