How ballot boxes in Washington state protect your vote
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King County's ballot drop boxes are made of quarter-inch-thick steel and are welded at the corners. Photo: Melissa Santos/Axios
Election officials in Washington state say they've enacted safeguards to protect ballot drop boxes from sabotage, including against fires like the one that damaged hundreds of ballots at a Vancouver drop box this week.
Why it matters: About half of voters in Washington — which conducts its elections almost entirely by mail — have chosen to return their ballots to drop boxes in recent years instead of using the postal service, according to the Washington secretary of state's office.
The latest: Election officials in King and Pierce counties, the state's most populous, scheduled additional pickups from ballot drop boxes after Monday's fires, to limit the time ballots sit in the boxes.
- But largely, county officials are relying on their tank-like ballot boxes to protect your vote.
Zoom in: King County and many other counties in Washington use ballot boxes made of quarter-inch-thick steel that's welded at the corners, leaving no seams to pry apart, Halei Watkins, spokesperson for the county elections office, told Axios.
- Those ballot boxes — the largest of which weigh over 1,000 pounds — include multiple devices that will deploy a chemical fire suppressant if they detect a high amount of heat, Kyle Haugh, election manager for Pierce County, told Axios.
Yes, but: While the Vancouver ballot box where ballots were destroyed was made by a different manufacturer, it also had a fire suppression system inside.
- Officials "are working to try to understand" why that fire protection system didn't work, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey told Axios.
Catch up quick: Even before this week's fires, King County had arranged to have private security officers at all of its ballot boxes, plus non-uniformed police officers at some of the busiest drop box locations, Watkins said.
- Pierce County, meanwhile, has been talking to local law enforcement agencies for months about keeping an eye on its drop boxes.
- "We notified them to watch out for traffic, watch out to make sure the boxes are still there," Haugh said.
Flashback: A school bus crashed into one of the King County drop boxes a few years ago, and the box "did not move an inch," Watkins said, but the school bus was "pretty messed up."
The bottom line: Voters "shouldn't be discouraged" from using ballot drop boxes between now and Tuesday's election, Haugh said.
- But, Watkins said, if you see anything suspicious or intimidating by a drop box in King County, "call 911."