Oct. 21, 2005
King County secures temporary ballot processing facility for General Election
Squeezed by limited space, King County Elections has secured a temporary facility for the 2005 General Election so it can concurrently process, count, duplicate and reconcile absentee ballots according to state law. Currently, limited space at the Mail Ballot Operations Satellite (MBOS) where all of these function occur means processing and counting must stop in order to duplicate and reconcile ballots as required by a new state law.
"It became apparent during the Primary that we need to be able to count, process, duplicate and reconcile ballots at the same time in order to meet the state mandated deadline of counting all ballots received before Election Day by the Friday following the election," said Dean Logan, Director of King County Records, Elections and Licensing. "With a higher turnout expected for the General Election, the additional space is crucial for our operations."
The temporary facility will offer better security, better opportunities for observers to view the election process and it will provide more room needed for the extra teams of people duplicating ballots. A new state law requires that ballots be duplicated when they are marked in a manner that cannot be properly read by tabulation equipment. Prior to the law being passed, if a voter circled their choices instead of filling in the oval, election workers could, under the observation of political party observers, mark directly on a ballot to clarify voter intent. Additionally, King County will hire extra teams to duplicate ballots in order to speed up the counting process.
King County expects about 462,400 ballots to be cast in the November General Election as opposed to the 300,569 processed in the Primary. Turnout is expected to be about 45 percent with estimates of more than 350,000 absentee ballots cast. Absentee ballots were mailed Thursday, October 20.
The temporary facility is located in a county-owned building at 9010 E. Marginal Way in Tukwila where the countywide recount in last year's Governor's race as well as ballot sorting for the recent recount in the Sheriff's race took place. King County Elections will use 33,000 square feet in the temporary facility for opening ballots, duplicating ballots, canvassing the election and training poll workers. Ballots will be delivered to the temporary facility, processed there and then securely transported to MBOS for tabulation. Once tabulated, ballots will be stored at MBOS. Ballots the Canvassing Board says must be duplicated will be duplicated at the temporary facility and then under police escort, sent to MBOS for tabulation.
In addition to this new facility, Elections has four other facilities: the Mail Ballot Operations Satellite where absentee ballots are counted and stored; the Elections Distribution Center, where poll site equipment is prepared and stored; Room 553 of the County Administration Building where voter services, information technology support, election night reporting and management are located; the voter hotline phone bank and a communications center are located separately on the second floor of the King County Administrative Building; and office space at the Bank of America Tower for staff working on the Disability Voting Access Equipment (DAVE) project.
"Adding another temporary facility between the Primary and General Election is not ideal, but this is our only option," said Logan. "We've simply outgrown the space we're in and until King County Elections is consolidated under one roof, adding 33,000 square feet allows us to staff at the level required in Washington's largest county."
Security surveillance cameras have been installed in the temporary facility and two secure cages have been installed for storing ballots. King County Sheriff deputies will provide around the clock security.
An earlier proposal to consolidate all elections operations in one facility as recommended by the Citizen Elections Oversight Committee, the Office of the Secretary of State, and the recent Election Center audit was rejected. The King County Executive's office continues to work with the King County Council to find a facility that would meet Elections long term operational needs.
The temporary, leased facility will be leased through the end of 2005. Future use of the facility is subject to King County Executive and County Council approval.
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