PORT ANGELES — It’s the final countdown. Four days left until ballot dropboxes close.
In the past week, ballot dropboxes have been in the news after an incendiary device destroyed hundreds of ballots in a dropbox in Vancouver, Wash.
Both Clallam and Jefferson counties have fire suppressants in all their dropboxes, measures of election security that will hopefully protect them from being vulnerable to similar incidents.
“As soon as those fire suppressants get a whiff of any of that smoke at all, it’s going to set it off and turn it all off so your whole box doesn’t go off in flames,” Clallam County Auditor Shoona Riggs told the county commissioners during an October work session.
If the fire suppressants are working, ballots should be saved. Fire suppressants in a dropbox in Portland, Ore., stopped a similar incendiary device from doing much damage, according to the Washington State Standard.
In addition to fire suppressants, Clallam and Jefferson counties have measures in place to protect both dropboxes and the overall safety of the election.
Dropboxes are constructed to withstand tampering with lock and tamper evidence seals, Jefferson County Elections Coordinator Quinn Grewell said. They are also bolted in cement and constructed on a steel base, she added.
All of Jefferson County’s 11 dropboxes are placed in safe, accessible well-lit locations, often in active areas “such as fire stations, community centers, county property and courthouses,” Grewell said.
Additionally, Grewell said their office has a “fabulous working relationship” with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, which often sends extra patrols to the dropbox locations to “help make voters feel a little more comfortable.”
Clallam County’s nine drop boxes have been recently updated so they are uniform and voters can easily identify them, Riggs said.
When ballots are picked up, Grewell said they are “always, always, always emptied by a team of two.”
This year, one of the individuals collecting ballots on election night will be Sheriff Joe Nole, Grewell added.
The counties also have protection against double voting, with help from a statewide voter registration and election information management system that won’t allow someone to double register.
Sometimes, however, voters will update their voter registration information right before the election, leading the system to generate a second ballot. In that case, Grewell said, the original ballot will get suspended or, if the original ballot has been returned and processed, the second ballot will be declared void.
“With the systems we have, there are checks and balances in place to ensure you don’t vote twice,” Grewell said. “Every single step of the way, in every single process, we balance and verify [the ballots].”
Signatures play a big role too.
“Your password for voting is essentially your signature,” Grewell said.
Any election worker who checks signatures is required to participate in signature verification and forensic signature analysis training with the Secretary of State, Riggs said.
“Every single ballot that comes in, the signature is then verified against the signature we have on file,” Grewell said.
The signatures on file often come from driver’s licenses and voter registration forms.
When comparing signatures, elections staff look for identifiable points, rather than requiring it is an exact match. They also will check the signature up to three times, Riggs said.
If the signature isn’t there or can’t be verified, county staff will contact the ballot holder multiple times through mail, email and phone, if they have a number on file.
“We do everything we possibly can,” Grewell said.
If someone’s ballot is challenged for any reason, voters have until 4:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25, to fix the error.
Individuals can check the status of their ballot at VoteWa.gov.
Ballot dropboxes will close at 8 p.m. Tuesday and the counties will certify ballot counts on Nov. 26.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
