With two weeks remaining until ballots are due for the Aug. 6 primary election, Washington’s new statewide elections system is being tested under fire.
While some county auditors have expressed concerns about the system, residents worried about voter fraud can be secure in the knowledge that Washington has the ultimate stopgap — paper ballots that can be used to verify results should questions arise.
The new system, dubbed VoteWA, connects elections offices in all 39 counties to share voter information in real time. As The (Everett) Herald explained: “Election workers in Everett, Spokane and Yakima should be able to sign on and, at the same moment, know if there is a new registered voter in Tacoma or if a current voter moved to a new address in Zillah.”
The system follows the adoption of same-day voter registration throughout the state. When working properly, it should mollify those who have worries about voter fraud as well as proponents of increasing ballot accessibility.
There are, however, concerns about the system’s ability to function properly. King County Auditor Julie Wise told a state Senate committee: “This project is not ready for our voters. It really isn’t. We need to go through a mock election. We need to test the system.” On the other hand, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said, “We are 100 percent confident that we will be able to conduct this year’s primary with accurate election results.”
Ideally, there would have been time to thoroughly test the system. In the absence of that, Secretary of State Kim Wyman, Washington’s top elections official, made the decision to use the system for the current primary.
The security and efficiency of Washington’s election system has received national kudos. Wyman has discussed the state’s security measures at national conferences, and she has effectively overseen a system that is “air-gapped” from the internet, keeping it out of reach from would-be hackers. Washington was among 21 states identified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as being targeted by Russian hackers in 2016, and reports are that such attempts were unsuccessful.
In many other states, the system does not appear to be as secure, particularly those that use electronic voting machines without paper ballots. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Securing America’s Federal Elections Act, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has declined to consider the legislation, saying that elections are up to the individual states. McConnell’s shortsighted approach in the wake of well-documented meddling during the 2016 election threatens to undermine our democracy.
The new VoteWA system eventually will help bolster that democracy in this state, despite worries about its effectiveness for this election. While a full test run would have been preferable, using it for the primary in an off-year election, where turnout is expected to be low, is the next-best scenario. Further delays in implementing the system would create additional headaches for the state’s presidential primary in March or the highly anticipated 2020 election.
To help mitigate any problems, Clark County voters who have not received a ballot or experience problems should contact the county at 564-397-2345 or at elections@clark.wa.gov.
Any statewide system involving software and computer interfaces is destined to encounter problems at the outset. But the old-fashioned way of conducting elections — paper ballots — provides Washington with an extra layer of security.
