SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. – From Wednesday through Friday, the Spokane County Elections Office will send ballots for Washington’s August 6 Primary Election ballots.
Washington is a vote-by-mail state, which makes some Spokane County voters, like Scott Kusel, uneasy.
“I don’t trust the process any longer,” Kusel said.
In April, Kusel was driving in Spokane County when he discovered 26 ballots found on the side of a road. He brought the ballots to the Elections Office.
“This particular incident…I’ve suspected the process for a while of not being secure. And this just kind of proved to me that the process is not secure,” Kusel said.
The Spokane County Elections Office notified the United States Postal Service about this incident.
“In this case, obviously someone had stolen a handful of mail, gone up and down the street maybe, pulled it out of peoples’ mailboxes. But, in most cases, the mail gets where it needs to get, usually, on a timely basis. So, as far as security in the mail, that’s not too worrisome. But also, in the state of Washington, a vote-by-mail state, if you don’t receive your ballot, call us,” Vicky Dalton, the Spokane County Auditor, said.
Dalton told NonStop Local that mail-in ballots are secure.
The debate over mail-in voting has existed throughout American history, dating back to the Civil War.
Dalton added that if Washington voters are still uneasy about mail-in ballots, there is a way to track their status.
“Voters can basically watch their ballot in transit. So, you can go on to VoteWa.Gov, you can check to see if we’ve sent the ballot out to you, you can see if we’ve received your ballot back from you, if we’ve verified your signature and then if it’s been sent to tabulation,” Dalton said.
Dalton told NonStop Local that if voters do not receive a ballot by Tuesday, they should call the Elections Office.
Voters can expect a wide array of positions: Governor, seats in the U.S. Senate, State House and various nonpartisan offices.
