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Arson destroys hundreds of ballots inside a Washington state drop box.
(washingtonstatestandard.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
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Legit question: how do they figure out whose ballots got destroyed so they can vote again? Or do they even bother?
Ballots typically have identifiers such as voter information or barcodes that help election officials match them to specific voters, allowing them to contact those whose ballots were compromised and ensure they can cast a new vote.
Voters who used the affected drop box after the last collection time are encouraged to contact the Clark County Auditor's office to verify if their ballot was among those destroyed and to obtain a replacement (source)
So the onus is on the voters, meaning those votes are likely lost :/
I’m sure most of the people living there who recently dropped a ballot in that box will care enough to ask the same thing though.
I called the election board near me recently and learned my vote was deactivated because I changed registration, so my new ballot will be counted sooner but if I do nothing they’ll just count it on 15 Nov
I agree that almost everyone affected would WANT to vote again; most of the work of voting is deciding who to vote for, and they've already done that.
Another problem though is that not everyone affected will know that anything happened to their ballot.
But what other options are there? The ballots were destroyed, so there's no way to know who to contact to let them know it happened.
Yeah, I don't see any other option. I'm just saying it ain't good.
If you are worried your mail in ballot is having issues, many states will allow you to cast a “provisional ballot” that only gets counted after they verify if your mail in ballot was processed.
Since the ballots hadn't been collected, there's no way for the state to know the identity of voters who dropped off ballots that were destroyed in the fire because those ballots were destroyed.
You can look up your ballot status online to see if its been recieved.
That's cool. Any links to that, kind internet stranger?
place to start
https://clark.wa.gov/elections/wheres-my-ballot/ballot-status-tool
Thanks
its linked to your voter registration, I forget the site but you can look up your county auditor and find it probably.
You can check if your ballot was received on a web site and they said if you know your ballot was in there, to reach out and request a new one.
(from the point of the vote counters) They know because there are individualized bar codes on every envelope. They will just count every ballot that arrives intact. If they scan one and it's from a voter who has already been counted, they'll have to figure out if that's voting fraud or a legitimate consequence of an act of arson/other problem--and it's almost never voting fraud.
(from the point of view of the voter) assume your ballot was destroyed, get another one, vote again.
Your election process may vary, but usually mail in ballots are in a certification envelope with your name, address, and often a declaration of eligibility, voter signature and witness. Digital methods may have a barcode encoding this information, easily readable only by an election official.
That identification can be used to trace your ballot if damaged/lost and to check for eligibility and that you only voted once.
The contents are then removed from the certification envelope and the secrecy envelope containing the ballot is added with other votes and anonymised.