After the shenanigans of Christine Gregoire’s upset a few years back, King County has pushed us further and further away from obvious accountability in the election system.

Gone are the two or more sets of eyes watching every ballot to be replaced by the good graces of union mail carriers. For those who wanted some actual security with their ballot, “drop boxes” were provided.

Instead of having the parties manage the boxes as they would have managed the in-person ballot collections, King County hired an army of additional employees to collect your ballots — two times a day, no less.

Well, guess what, they reneged on the ballot drop boxes now, claiming budget cuts, and uprooted all but two lonely boxes for the entire county. Instead of depending on the people, the Democrats in county government could not imagine any other solution but more government and now we have nothing but the mail system.

It is too easy to “lose” a few ballots from concentrations of certain voters, but there is one key good thing that may make this tolerable. King County has a computer database that you can check to make sure your ballot arrived. Just put in your name and date of birth at info.kingcounty.gov/elections/mailballottracking.aspx

Being able to check this does makes me a lot more confident about my ballot. I suggest everyone always check each election. Trust, but verify!

I still have a few questions that I am awaiting answers on. What if they don’t show my ballot as received? Who opens the ballots? Is it done by machines? Is there any knowledge as to what district they arrive from by those handling them? Is it employees or are there representatives from the various parties on site to oversee or participate? How are the tallies promoted? How can we know there is no room for shenanigans? Are the procedures published? Can the public view the action?

Steve Marquis

Fall City