You're in: King County Executive, Ron Sims

May 17, 2007

Ballot tracking and accountability recommendations sent to Council: Voters to be able to follow ballot online

When King County moves to all-mail voting next year, voters will be able to use the Web to verify their ballots were mailed on time and received by county elections. King County Executive Ron Sims yesterday transmitted a business case that recommends investing in state-of-the art mail processing equipment that will increase the transparency of the ballot lifecycle after it is mailed.

"This comprehensive plan gives the public what they want – the technology to verify their individual ballot packet was mailed on time and received by King County," Sims said. However, it doesn't sacrifice the sanctity and secrecy of their private ballot. The Pitney Bowes mail processing equipment will streamline elections and provide a vital, and much needed check and balance to our existing vendor."

Information outlined in the business case provides voters the highest level of ballot accountability while preserving every voter's right to a secret ballot. The report suggests redesigning elections processes with technologies used by credit card companies and banks. The recommended technologies include mail processing equipment engineered to track and weigh ballot packets, similar to how private businesses track important mail.

In its analysis of available options, King County Elections evaluated proposals on eight criteria: security, accuracy, capacity, compatibility, reliability, maintenance, space and weight, and cost. Four vendors proposed tools to meet critical business objectives. Following the initial evaluation, the vendors were thoroughly researched and rated on established criteria and business objectives.

"Given our size and what is available, the best solution for tracking and ballot accountability is a two-fold solution that uses Pitney Bowes equipment and part of VoteHere's Mail-in Ballot Tracker," said Sherril Huff, Sims' nominee for director of Records, Elections and Licensing. "By combining the quality equipment and process management expertise from Pitney Bowes with the database and process management tools offered by VoteHere, the citizens of King County will be able to confirm their signature was verified and ballot packet sent on to be opened. I believe this can be done without bar codes on the ballots."

"The results of our public outreach and focus groups were clear; voters are concerned with the privacy of their ballot and are not interested in using bar codes to track their ballot through tabulation," said Sims.

Pitney Bowes, a leader in mailstream technology industry for 87 years, provides high speed ballot packet sorting and data capture equipment and can distinguish returned mail ballots through size, weight and data confirmation. The equipment sensors are programmed to look for anomalies like envelopes with two ballots or for cases where a voter forgot to insert into the envelope their voted ballot. These scenarios make reconciliation difficult and greatly slow down the process.

As part of the Pitney Bowes' package, the process of verifying the voter's signature will be streamlined with new automated signature recognition software. The software is the same trusted technology banks have relied on to verify checks. Automation of signature verification will not eliminate all human verification but will reduce the number of signatures that a human operator will need to compare, addressing a significant bottleneck in mail ballot processing speed and ensuring the same standards are used to judge each signature.

With the new equipment, each returned ballot packet will be scanned to create a digital image of the voter's signature. Once scanned, the ballot packet will be securely stored thereby limiting the time ballot packets are outside of a locked and secured cage. Automated signature verification also provides a near-instant audit trail for all incoming ballot packet materials.

"King County will be joining the ranks of Orange and Sacramento counties, California and Miami-Dade County, Florida three large counties using Pitney Bowes equipment, who streamlined elections to provide more transparency and accountability to the public," said Sims. "This mail equipment has been used to process millions of ballots across the nation."

VoteHere's software, MiBT (Mail-in Ballot Tracker), compliments the Pitney Bowes equipment by taking the data captured in the process and providing a nearly real-time look at ballot packet location throughout the process. The software provides dozens of opportunities for ballot packet reconciliation and accounting. VoteHere's MiBT software has been used to track more than one million ballot envelopes in 20 Washington State counties since 2005. Although VoteHere does have the ability to track the ballot through tabulation, King County will not be employing this feature at this time. The secret ballot will remain in tact and voters able to confirm their packet was opened and ballot extracted.
The Metropolitan King County Council directed the Records, Elections, and Licensing Services Division to complete two information technology business cases on upgraded ballot tabulation systems and ballot tracking and accountability. REALS submitted the tabulation systems business case on March 30, 2007. The division transmitted this final report yesterday.

When King County moves to all mail voting in 2008, it will be the largest jurisdiction to process mail ballots in the nation. Learn more about King County's transition to all-mail voting.