How ballot boxes in Washington state protect your vote
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.

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."
