Spokane County certifies Aug. 4 primary

SPOKANE – County election officials made the outcome of the Aug. 4 primary official by certifying the election results last Tuesday, Aug. 18.

The simplest explanation of what that means was given in an email last week from Spokane County Elections manager Mike McLaughlin.

“The Spokane County Canvassing Board (county auditor, chair of the county commissioners and the county prosecuting attorney) go over the results and ‘Certify’ that they are complete and accurate,” McLaughlin wrote.

In actuality, it’s a bit more involved, and the documents of certification can be found on the county’s website under “Elections.” Before signing the “Oath of Authenticity,” County Auditor Vicky Dalton, Commission Chair Al French and County Attorney Larry Haskell reviewed 844 pages of voting data that broke down the election results by race, candidate and precinct.

Those results, once certified, were forwarded on to Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman’s office, which certified the statewide tabulations on Aug. 21. Overall, turnout for Washington was 54.44 percent — the highest for a primary in a presidential election year since 1964 when 56.06 percent turned out to vote.

That year, 840,000 Washington voters cast a ballot. This year, 2.51 million of just over 4.61 million registered voters did so, reflecting an almost 20 percent increase in turnout above the 2016 primary level of 34.88 percent.

“It’s gratifying to see that voters are excited, engaged and eager to exercise their rights to vote and make their voices heard,” Assistant Secretary of State Mark Neary said in an Aug. 21 news release.

Spokane County’s turnout was 49.73 percent, one of the lowest in the state, but not as low as the 34.02 percent of the 2016 primary. According to county unofficial election statistics, 50.49 percent of voters returned ballots — 172,391 out of 341,469 ballots sent out county wide.

The difference lies in items reviewed by the Canvassing Board in certifying the primary election. According to the report, 2,613 ballots were rejected for a variety of reasons, the largest being the 1,778 that were cast too late.

The second highest number was 569 ballots rejected because the signature of the voter did not match what was on file, with the third being 203 rejected because the return envelope was not signed. No credit was given to 132 ballots that came back in the security envelope only and 39 were disallowed because they were cast in the wrong election.

“Wrong election is when a voter returns a ballot in a previous election envelope,” McLaughlin said. “These are all gone through to check if it is a current ballot or a previous ballot. If it is a current ballot it will be counted, if a previous election ballot it will be rejected, as these were.”

Twelve ballots were rejected because the envelope was empty, 10 required and identification which was not provided and 17 came from individuals who were deceased — one of the reasons people questioning the reliability of all-mail voting point to as evidence of fraud.

It’s some of these accusations of fraud in mail-in elections that has voters worried about their ballots and asking questions. One of those centers on determining the progress of an individual’s ballot once it’s mailed.

Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said voters can find this out by accessing the states’ voter portal at voter.votewa.gov. Voters can get their ballots’ status, when it has been “batched up” to be mailed, when its received by the Elections Office, when the signature was reviewed and when the envelope was sent for opening so it can be tabulated.

“Once the envelope is opened, the name of the voter is not associated with the actual ballot,” Dalton said.

Dalton also confirmed that the U.S. Postal Service does postmark envelopes with the election insignia, another concern of voters.

“Even the business reply envelopes are postmarked at the stamp area and imprinted with the nearly invisible orange fluorescent bar code,” Dalton added. “We have scanners that can read the bar code if the postmark is unclear.”

Ballots for the Nov. 3 General Election will be sent to voters no later than Oct. 16. Voters are encouraged to check and update their registration or register to vote.

With a high turnout expected in November, election officials are encouraging voters to return their ballots as soon as possible to assist with tabulation.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].