Election day may be over, but the counting has just begun. The next month will include state and county election officials reviewing the ballot counts and certifying the results.
The process of certifying an election largely starts with the county, Washington’s Director of Elections Stuart Holmes said.
“Looking back at the 2004 governor's election, there was a lot of variation across the state,” he said. “Since that point in time, we've worked really closely as a state to ensure that there's consistency and standards for how different election processes must be done in the state of Washington.”
Local election offices use tabulation machines to count ballots, then state and local officials work together on what’s called election reconciliation.
“What that really means is we're accounting for every ballot that's been issued, and every ballot has been received by every county in the state of Washington,” Holmes said.
They have 21 days for reconciliation before submitting the findings to the county’s canvassing board, which then reviews the results. Once accepted, counties submit the results to the Secretary of State’s office. The agency then has nine days to certify multi-county races and statewide ballot measures.
The office requires tabulation machines to be tested before and after an election and only allows machines that cannot transmit wirelessly in any way.
“When we're talking about voting machines, there's a lot of concern about the accuracy of the voting machines and potentially, you know, a distrust with them in the outcomes,” Holmes said. “As election officials, we don't trust them either. That's why we do pre-election audits. We do post-election audits. We check them every, every possible way to confirm that they haven't been tampered with.”
They also work to detect fraud in voting, and one way they do that is by cross referencing the names of voters with lists from other states to catch anyone who may have voted in multiple states.
Holmes said the rate of fraud in the state is so low, it’s hard to measure.
“There are millions and millions of ballots that are cast and a very small amount of fraud. These small amounts still need to be treated seriously and investigated, but the fact remains that it's a very, very rare occurrence,” Holmes said.
