SPOKANE, Wash. – As Washington’s vote-by-mail election approaches with ballots due in 11 days, Spokane County election officials are focusing on ensuring the security of the voting process.
Elections Manager Mike McLaughlin outlined several steps taken to assure a ballot belongs to a registered Spokane County voter. “For your ballot to be counted, you have to be registered in Spokane County,” he said. If any discrepancies are found, the ballot is immediately flagged and not counted.
The process also includes checks to ensure no voter submits multiple ballots. McLaughlin is confident that duplicates are quickly identified and dealt with, reinforcing the security of the voting system.
One major part of the process is signature verification, which involves in-depth training for the officials responsible for matching signatures against their records. “If you registered on paper, we have that record. If you updated your record at the Department of Motor Vehicle, we have that record,” an official stated.
To further assure transparency, partisan poll watchers monitor the verification process. They cannot decide on the validity of a signature but can raise questions for officials to explain the matches. “They can question us — they can’t question whether the signature is good or bad but they can look at them and then we’ll explain… okay this is why it matches,” McLaughlin said.
Reflecting on public concerns about election fairness, McLaughlin conveyed his dedication to serving the public and ensuring every valid vote is counted. “We don’t care because we’re here to serve the public and that’s what all these people here are doing is, we’re working to get every vote counted the right way,” he stated.
The Spokane County Elections Office remains vigilant in maintaining election integrity and emphasizes that registered voters across the county can track their ballots (votewa.gov) online to ensure their votes are securely counted.
For those worried about signature forgery, registered voters can flag any discrepancies online if their ballot appears submitted but wasn’t sent by them personally.
Spokane’s election officials are steadfast, and with tightened measures in place, McLaughlin maintained, “I’m very confident.”
