Dropping your ballot off in Tri-Cities? Somebody may be watching

With ballots already arriving in Tri-Cities mailboxes for the Aug. 2 election, some conservatives are turning a skeptical eye toward county-certified ballot boxes.

Concerns of “ballot harvesting” — the effort by a third-party to handle, and possibly manipulate a person’s vote, while in transit to an election center — have been intensified by conservatives in recent years.

Most recently the issue was raised in a debunked documentary, “2000 Mules,” which falsely claimed 2020 election results were altered by a ballot-stuffing scheme.

But elections officials in the Tri-Cities say there’s nothing to fear, and that a trend of “drop box watchers” is fine as long as they don’t break laws.

Signs began popping up over the weekend in the Seattle area warning voters that the area around drop boxes were under surveillance by volunteers and that ballot harvesting for money is against federal law.

The group organizing the effort, WA Citizens United to Secure Ballot Boxes, also encouraged watchers to take pictures of anyone “dumping an in ordinate [sic] amount of ballots,” according to the Seattle Times.

King County Elections has since asked its sheriff’s office to investigate who placed the signs, and called the actions a “targeted effort undertaken by party-affiliated activists to intimidate and dissuade voters from using secure ballot drop boxes.”

The effort may be catching on in the Tri-Cities as well, though no signs have been placed and election officials say they are unaware of any specific incidents.

Benton County Republicans recently shared a Facebook post by Brad Klippert, a Republican running for Washington’s 4th Congressional District. In it, the party urged voters to “get out of your cars” and take ballots into the voting center instead of using one of the 11 official ballot boxes managed by the elections department.

One image appears to be linked to WA Citizens United to Secure Ballot Boxes, also encouraged people to volunteer to “drop box watch” and report “suspicious activity” to an email account not affiliated with county elected officials.

The Washington state primary election for this year’s midterm election is Aug. 2, with state and federal candidates on the ballot. About 125,000 ballots have been mailed out so far in Benton County and about 43,000 in Franklin County.

“It’s an open, public process. They can’t be electioneering at a drop box, there are laws against that. We welcome people if they want to follow our pickup teams around or camp out at a drop box,” Benton County Auditor Brenda Chilton told the Tri-City Herald.

Electioneering or campaigning at drop boxes is illegal, and watchers cannot interfere with someone delivering their ballot to a box. It’s also illegal to tamper or damage a drop box, Chilton said.

Washington state also doesn’t have any laws that restrict the number of ballots a person can drop off, nor restrictions on who may drop off a ballot for you.

“It’s not illegal for you to drop off your neighbor’s ballot,” she said.

Chilton said she’s had some inquiries in recent months about people curious about drop box watching.

Franklin County Auditor Matt Beaton said he disagreed with Thurston Auditor Mary Hall’s characterization of the signs as “voter intimidation” in the Times’ story.

“(The boxes are) in public places and people are free to observe them if they like — they cannot impede on the public’s ability to cast their ballots,” he said, adding later that he believes “any increased interest in the elections process is better for everyone.”

Franklin County operates seven drop boxes, and just recently opened two up in Mesa and Kahlotus.

Beaton said he hasn’t received any inquiries about drop box watching.

County-certified drop boxes remain a safe way for voters to return their ballots, he said, and are often faster than the U.S. Postal Service.

Regardless of if they’ve dropped their ballot off in the mail or in a drop box, voters can track their ballot at vote.wa.gov.

There, they’ll be notified when their ballot has been received and counted by their local auditor’s office.

Both auditors also encouraged Tri-City voters and residents to give their local auditor’s office a call with any questions or concerns.