SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane County voters can expect to receive their mail-in ballots this week for the August primary election, with election officials emphasizing the security measures in place to protect every vote.
Once voters return their signed ballots—either through the mail or at an official dropbox—the ballots enter a secure “chain of custody” process managed by election workers who track each ballot.
“From the moment it comes into our facility, we’re tracking it. These big machines sort them, they capture the barcodes,” said Vicky Dalton, Spokane County Auditor.
Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said the Elections Office maintains strict protocols to prevent unauthorized access to ballots.
“In our facility here, no one’s ever left alone with the ballots. There always has to be two people. And to access areas where we have live ballots store. It takes two I.D. badges to open the doors,” Dalton said.
Every ballot has a paper trail, ensuring no one can vote twice or vote for someone else. Dalton said the office tracks all ballots sent and cancels envelopes for ballots that voters report as lost or that are being replaced.
While machines assist in sorting and capturing barcode information, Dalton stressed that human election workers remain the final authority on signature verification. Election workers use a color-coding system to track each ballot’s position in the signature verification process.
“Whether it’s regular computers or artificial intelligence. Those are only tools. They don’t get to make decisions,” Dalton said.
In some cases, ballots come in unsigned or the signature doesn’t match the voter’s record.
“About 2% of all the ballots that come back to us will have signature problems. After the cures, there’s still about 1% of the voted ballots that come back to us that won’t be tabulated,” Dalton said.
Any ballots postmarked after election day will be rejected. Dalton encourages voters to use official ballot boxes during the last week of voting to ensure ballots don’t get stuck in the mail.
She’s also reminding voters that they can track their ballot through the whole process at votewa.gov.
“Voters have a lot of control in their own hands. So, we just want them to use it,” Dalton said.
Ballots are due by August 4.
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