How one WA county upped security ahead of the election

Missing mailed ballots. Cybersecurity threats. Fentanyl in ballot envelopes. Ballot drop box fires.

Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall is prepared for all of it.

In the last four years, Hall and county auditors across Washington have been upping their physical and cybersecurity systems ahead of another presidential election cycle.

“We didn’t start planning three months ago,” Hall said. “We started planning three years ago.”

Like other local officials around the country, Hall is navigating an era where threats against election workers have become more common, the possibility of political violence looms, and leading political figures – including Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump – have stoked unfounded claims about widespread election fraud.

Since 2020, Thurston County elections has added locked cages around all computer systems – a request from the U.S. Department of Justice. The office has also built a new secure room to open mail to avoid contamination from substances like fentanyl in envelopes and opened a new secure voting center to make the process more accessible and safe for voters.

Hall’s preparation mirrors similar updates in other Washington counties.

Since 2022, the secretary of state has given out $3.6 million to counties for physical and cybersecurity improvements. The grant program gave counties up to $80,000 to upgrade elections security software, hire information technology specialists or make structural improvements.

Snohomish County is using some of this money to invest in monitoring devices, security measures for ballot drop boxes and building security. Stevens County plans to add barriers and lobby management to enhance transparency and security of their systems. Thurston County will build physical vehicle barriers to protect its new voting center, which opened this year.

The need for security preparations came into sharper focus this week when a ballot drop box in Clark County was set on fire, destroying hundreds of ballots.

Many drop boxes in the state, including the ones in Clark County, have fire suppression units, but it’s up to each county to determine which kind to use, according to the secretary of state’s office. Following the incident, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said his office was looking to obtain better-working suppressants.

In Thurston County, the drop box fire is not scaring Hall. The county will increase the number of times they are collecting ballots from drop boxes, and local law enforcement will be making rounds at all locations throughout the next week. She’s also confident in the fire suppressant the county uses in their boxes.

“The whole industry is very vulnerable right now,” Hall said. “But I also know that we are incredibly prepared. I really believe our system will hold.”

Ensuring safe and speedy results

Last November, Thurston County was one of several counties that received envelopes with fentanyl on the busiest day of their ballot processing. The incident forced elections offices across the state to halt processing and evacuate, which slowed down results.

Hall does not want this to happen again. In the last year, the county built a separate room to open ballots. It is ventilated directly outside, and anyone who is processing mail must wear protective equipment like gloves, a gown, and a face mask and shield.

The county paid for it mostly with grants, Hall said, adding that it was a priority for her to keep her staff safe and avoid slowing down ballot processing.

“Should anyone open mail and discover something in that room, we can simply call the authorities. They’ll focus on that room, and we won’t have to evacuate the rest of our facility,” Hall said.

Hall said she’s spent months thinking about what-ifs and has tried to be proactive.

The facility also has Narcan, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, at every desk. In the final days leading up to the election, local law enforcement’s drug-sniffing dogs will make their way through the building regularly.

As election workers across the country continue to face threats, Hall said she has tried her best to help her staff feel as comfortable and safe as possible.

A law enforcement officer walks through the building regularly, and staff have many tools to keep themselves safe when picking up ballots at drop boxes, sorting them at the facility, checking signatures and tabulating votes.

As they do all of this, the staff can look up and see a poster hanging high in the county’s processing center: “Election workers make democracy happen.”

“The country is in good hands,” she said. “This is what we do, and we do it well.”

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