Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey has released photos of the ballots burned in a fire in the ballot drop box located at the Fisher’s Landing C-Tran Transit Center, 3510 SE 164th Ave., Vancouver, during the early morning hours on Monday, Oct. 28.
Elections staff have identified 488 damaged ballots retrieved from the ballot box. As of Tuesday evening, Oct. 29, 345 of those identified voters had already contacted the Elections Office to request a replacement ballot. Elections staff will mail 143 ballots to the additional identified voters tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 31, according to a news release.
Elections personnel could not identify six of the ballots. Other ballots may have been completely burned to ash and unidentifiable.
Voters who deposited ballots at the Fisher’s Landing ballot box after 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26, can check online to see if their ballot was received by going to votewa.gov. If a voter does not see their ballot as being received by Oct. 28, they can get a new ballot by visiting the Elections Office at 1408 Franklin St. in downtown Vancouver or contacting Elections at 564-397-2345 or elections@clark.wa.gov.
“I appreciate everyone’s understanding and patience as we work through this unprecedented event,” Kimsey said in the release. “We have taken action that I hope will increase voters’ confidence in using the county’s ballot drop boxes.”
In response to the ballot box damage, election workers updated their retrieval schedule for the drop boxes and now pick up ballots prior to 5:30 pm each day. Ballots deposited prior to that time will be received at the Elections Office that same day.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office and the Vancouver Police Department have increased patrols around ballot drop box locations as their calls for service allow.
In addition to an increased law enforcement presence, Clark County Elections Office employees now serve as ballot box observers 24 hours a day, seven days a week at each of the 22 drop boxes throughout the county. Employees will not confront anyone. They are there to observe and report suspicious activities to authorities.
Kimsey stressed that voters have options in addition to using ballot drop boxes for making sure their ballots are delivered to Elections by 8 pm on Election Day, Nov. 5.
Voters are reminded to only use official ballot drop-off locations or USPS. Official locations are those listed on the Elections website, https://clark.wa.gov/elections/ballot-deposit-locations.
In the release, Kimsey also reassured residents that the procedure for processing ballots does not allow for duplicate ballots to be counted for the same voter.
More information is available in an Oct. 28 news release.
