PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — Pierce County Elections will test their system’s vote-counting software on Tuesday to verify that it’s up-to-date and working properly.
Pierce County Elections Supervisor Kyle Haugh said his team is excited to serve the county’s 550,000 registered voters.
“We’re going to have a test deck that’s been approved by the Secretary of State’s office and we’re going run that and make sure that scan matches our expected results,” Haugh said.
After the test deck has been processed through the tabulation equipment, a comparison is made between the pre-determined test deck results and the tabulator results to ensure that the “expected” vote counts match the actual vote counts.
Election workers will also be verifying ballots using a specific standard, and if a ballot doesn’t meet that standard, it won’t be stored.
“We don’t just say, this ballot is good. The signature has to match, they had to have not voted, and it all has to be accounted for,” Haugh explained. “In this state, if we report that we tabulated 100 ballots, we need to show in our registration system the 100 people who have credit for voting. If we don’t, we have to report that anomaly to the general public, and the Secretary of State’s office and explain why that anomaly occurred.”
Haugh said maintaining a closed system is vital for security, but it’s also designed to be as transparent as possible.
The election center’s workspace is open to public viewing, complete with monitors set up in front of windows that allow people to watch the entire process.
“If you’re a member of the public and you want to just see what’s going on, you can see what’s going on through these windows,” he said. “They’re mirrored monitors, so you can always tell what we’re working on at all times. Anytime we’re open and we’re processing ballots, our doors are unlocked at the front and people are able to come in and see what we’re doing.”
Haugh said having this open approach is important to making sure people trust their elections, and hopes more people come to see the process in action.
“We love educating our voters. This is a service you pay for, your elections and we want to make sure everyone feels confident in knowing how secure they are,” Haugh said.
Haugh said the same amount of dedication goes into every election Pierce County processes.
“As soon as the primaries ended in August, we started preparing ballots for this election," he said. "It’s a lot of groundwork, constantly, and when this election’s certified, we’re gonna turn around and start the February special elections for every school district and special taxing districts that decide they want to hold an election. The work never ends.”
Haugh said since this is a midterm election, they’re anticipating a 65% turnout, which is around 350,000 ballots, but they’re prepared for more.
This test is open to the public to watch and will happen here at the Pierce County Election Center at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Registered voters in Pierce County will be able to start submitting their ballots on Oct. 21 until Election Day on Nov. 8.