How Washington is preventing and detecting voter fraud

“Voter fraud” might be the first thing you think when someone mentions election security.

“With our centralized state system, we’re able to detect and prevent voter fraud in many cases, and identify it and take action with law enforcement as necessary,” said Stuart Holmes, the Director of Elections for the Washington Secretary of State’s office. 

One of the many ways Washington prevents voter fraud is a result of cooperation between the Department of Health, Social Security Administration and other states reporting people who have died.

“We flag that voter record and then an election administrator compares the two records, confirms if it’s a match and then that registration is canceled,” Holmes said.

There are also ways to track name and address changes when voters move to Washington, within Washington, or leave and register in another state.

“If a voter lets us know they’re moving from another state or we identity that they’ve moved from another state, we let that other state know, so that they have a possibility of preventing dual voting accidentally or intentionally in two states,” Holmes said.

It is possible to receive two ballots in the mail, especially if someone is moving states during an election. Holmes said after an election, though, a comparison takes place to see if voters have actually participated or attempted to vote in more than one state.  

“If we identify those, those are forwarded to … the county auditor for investigation, and those will get referred to the prosecutor if they believe any criminal activity has occurred,” he said.

If you receive someone else’s ballot in the mail, Holmes said don’t throw it away. 

“Write on the outside of it “not at this address,” throw it back in the mailbox or put it in a ballot drop box if you’re dropping all your ballots off. That local election official will then be able to take action on that voter registration so no future ballots are issued,” he said.

As far as cyber threats, Holmes said there are ways to prevent and detect any nefarious activity. He said Washington’s tabulation system is not connected to the internet. 

“With the combination of paper ballots, we’re able to have a lot of evidence and chain of custody in controls to prevent unauthorized access to the tabulation equipment,” he said.

To ensure the tabulation equipment is working correctly, there will be a statewide risk limiting audit. 

“Random ballots will be selected of all of the ballots that are returned, and manually compared to the tabulated result, to ensure that that technology is accurately interpreting the votes that were marked by the voter on that paper ballot,” he said.

Voters have several options for returning ballots. In 2022, ballot drop boxes were the most common option. Recently, some ballot boxes were set on fire in Washington and Oregon. But Holmes said voters should remain confident in the safety and security of drop boxes. 

“State and federal agencies are doing everything they can to support our election officials, local law enforcement, they’re doing everything to protect the local ballot drop boxes and voting centers to make them safe for both the voters and the election staff that operate in them,” he said.

Voters can find more resources including archived audits, ballot return statistics and voting security information on the Washington Secretary of State’s website.