TACOMA, Wash. — In just over three weeks, voters will open their mailboxes to find their ballots ready to be filled out. And with two assassination attempts against former president Donald Trump pushing political violence to the forefront, election officials say they aren't taking any chances.
“We are trying to turn the temperature back down," said Pierce County auditor Linda Farmer. "We’re desperately trying to make government boring again.”
With the county expecting a high voter turnout pushing 80%, Farmer said voter and worker safety is a top priority — especially after last November.
During the 2023 general election, Pierce County was one of four election offices in Washington to receive a threatening envelope filled with a suspicious powder, forcing everyone to evacuate and delaying ballot processing.
Since last fall, Farmer said the county has taken extra steps to increase security, including additional emergency training for workers, equipping drop box workers with high-visibility gear, and adding extra protective gear to the county processing center.
“We've beefed up our security, and we’ll also be adding some shatterproof glass along the observation corridor. We’ve also added armed security, quietly, to all of our elections since last November," Farmer said.
Security is also top of mind for election officials in Snohomish County. This November will be the first presidential election in the county's new multi-million dollar election center that opened earlier this year.
County auditor Garth Fell said safety and security are built into the new space, with the facility outfitted with cameras and alarms. It's also located next to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.
"We’ll have private security supplementing local law enforcement to make sure we have safe locations for our voters and that the drop boxes are safe for dropping off ballots," Fell said. "It’s a well-rounded strategy to make sure workers are safe and voters are safe."
It's anticipated that the Snohomish County's facility will process more than 400,000 ballots this election, Fell said. He said in addition to safety, transparency is key to the election process, and the new center puts that front and center.
“We want to make sure voters understand this is their elections process and they should be able to see how it operates," Fell explained. "They should be able to see how we’re accounting for ballots and counting ballots accurately.”
As we near the election, Snohomish County is also continuing its recruitment of election workers. They anticipate needing around 250 workers in total. For more information, visit snoco.org/elections.