King County Elections recovered 92 undelivered ballots from two bins of discarded mail found in a dumpster at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, the agency said. The discovery was reported by a resident who called the county's customer service line earlier this week after finding the mail, according to KOMO News.
The resident's call set off an inquiry by county employees, who confirmed the ballots were part of undelivered mail and had never been delivered to the voters they were addressed to. King County Elections said the recovered ballots were invalidated and replacement ballots were sent out.
The discovery came less than two weeks before the November 3 general election, a period when election offices across Washington state process and distribute mail ballots. Washington relies heavily on mail-in voting, and King County Elections is the largest elections office in the state.
County Issues Replacements; Postal Inspector General Investigates
King County Elections Chief of Staff Kendall Hodson said stolen mail sometimes turns up in public places during election season, according to the report.
The U.S. Postal Service confirmed it was aware of the Seattle incident. In a statement, the agency said its Office of Inspector General is handling the matter. The Postal Inspection Service was also reported to be investigating the discovery of the ballots in the trash bins at the park [1][2].
King County Elections said voters who have not received their ballots can request replacements from the agency.
Officials Say Discovery Does Not Enable Fraudulent Voting
Election administrators said missing ballots cannot be used to cast fraudulent votes because Washington uses individual tracking identifiers for voters and ballots. Officials examine each returned signature against voter registration records. The reviews are instructed by the Washington State Patrol, and questionable signatures trigger additional verification [3].
KCE spokesperson Halei Watkins said overlapping controls are intended to prevent anyone from submitting a ballot on another person's behalf. The combination of tracking identifiers and signature checks is designed to flag ballots that do not match the registered voter's record, according to the agency [3].
Hodson's account of stolen mail pointed to a pattern in which ballots are incidental to thefts targeting items of value.
Signature Verification Process Allows Voters to Address Discrepancies
Rather than immediately rejecting a ballot with an uncertain signature, election workers contact the voter and provide an opportunity to establish that the ballot was legitimately submitted. Discrepancies can be addressed until the day before the election's official certification. The process is part of a review intended to prevent duplicate submissions and is cited by officials as a safeguard even if election mail falls into the wrong hands [3].
The signature review is a standard step in Washington's vote-by-mail system. Election workers compare the signature on each returned envelope with the signature on file in the voter's registration record. If the two do not match closely enough, the ballot is set aside and the voter is notified.
Officials said the controls are layered so that a single failure does not open the door to fraudulent voting. A ballot recovered from a dumpster would still need to pass the signature check and the tracking-identifier review before it could be counted.
Investigation Continues as Election Officials Point to Existing Safeguards
The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General is examining the circumstances surrounding the discarded mail, and King County Elections has issued replacement ballots to all affected voters.
No further details on the investigation were provided in the KOMO report. The Postal Service did not disclose a timeline for the inquiry or say whether any suspects had been identified.n
The incident drew attention to the handling of election mail in a state that conducts its elections largely by mail.
References
- The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is investigating after a handful of ballots were found in a dumpster at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. https://www.instagram.com/reel/De1mu1-xGke/
- Ballots found in dumpster at Seattle's Golden Gardens Park. https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/ballots-found-dumpster-golden-gardens
- Dozens of undelivered ballots found in dumpster at Seattle park. https://komonews.com/news/local/undelivered-ballots-dumpster-seattle-golden-gardens-park-midterm-election-discarded-mail-voting-security-king-county-elections-replacement-ballot-registered-voters
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