On July 22, a group of eight UUC members and friends attended a tour of the King County Elections Office. It was very impressive to see our democracy in action. 

Key Points:

• The security and transparency are quite intense, with all of us being required to put our phones and bags in a locker before the tour. Even paper and pens or pencils are not allowed up to the secure second floor. No one can enter the area in the center of the second floor, where the ballots are handled, without a badge and code for the doors and all entries are recorded. Visitors can walk the hallway all the way around the perimeter of the second floor to view the activity in the center from all sides. Anyone can visit at any time for a self-guided tour. And if you want a guided group tour, you can schedule with them ahead of time. There are live webcams trained on each of the activity areas that can be viewed online by anyone: https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/elections/about-us/security-and-accountability/watch-us-in-action.

• The King County Elections staff has created a Voter Intent booklet. When a ballot is marked in a way that the machines cannot interpret, employees use the standardized interpretations of oddly filled out ballots, so it’s not just up to the judgement of the individual ballot reviewers to decide. To avoid any need for your ballot to be reviewed for intent regarding how you marked your choices, be sure to review and strictly follow directions for completing your ballot. Key tips include: (1) be consistent in how you mark each vote, as apparently if you fill in a bubble and put a check on others, your ballot will need to be pulled for reviewing, (2) sign and date the outside of the envelope using your official signature—every ballot envelope signature is compared by a human every time against your official signature on file (the same as on your driver's license, passport, etc.), and (3) include an email address or phone number on the envelope, so the Elections Office can contact you if your signature doesn't seem to match the ones on file closely enough. Any of this signature "curing" is done before the ballot envelope is opened.

• To view your voter registration information, track your ballot and read about the contests on your ballot, see My Voter Information - King County. This is also the place to sign yourself up for text or email ballot status alerts.

• Update your registration information or signature here: https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/elections/how-to-vote/register-to-vote. This is also the link to provide to folks who want to register for the first time.

• You can get a video tour of the Elections Building on their website: https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/elections/education-and-outreach/take-a-tour#toc-Watch-a-tour-video.

We learned that King County Elections gets visits from delegates from election teams from around the U.S.—and around the world—who want to learn from them to improve their own practices.

We all left being even more impressed with what an effective and safe election system we have in King County!

~UUC's UU the Vote Team