From the Auditor

There was much apprehension and anticipation going into the 2024 general election based on the experience from 2020. Your elections team was determined to make the Nov. 5, 2024, general election the best ever.

We began formal preparation and planning in December 2023. I attended two tabletop exercises and led two more local exercises to address possible threats and disruptions to the election and develop mitigation plans with input from our sheriff, the Office of Secretary of State, State Patrol, Homeland Security, the Mason County Department of Emergency Management and others. We also updated our Elections Continuity of Operations Plan.

As it turned out, administration of your election in Mason County went exceptionally well due to effective planning, the dedicated focus of your elections department, and a record number of volunteers from the League of Women Voters, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the Junior ROTC program at Shelton High School, to whom we owe great thanks. The ballot processing team tracked every ballot and reconciled every vote with no errors or exceptions.

Voters seemed happy with the service at the temporary Vote Centers in both Shelton and Belfair. Typically, we had 30-plus voters a day at the Belfair location. We improved voter accessibility by teaming with Mason Transit Authority to provide “dial a ride” service to the vote centers. Election observers were happy with the access to various processes and audits. Customer service and transparency were high priorities.

The biggest concern expressed by voters throughout the election was the potential for noncitizens to register to vote and vote. As your auditor, I have no visibility on voter citizenship status. Some voters seemed confused by the ballot initiatives. During ballot adjudication of overvotes, we noted that many voters changed votes from “yes” to “no” and vice versa.

For a comparison between the general elections in 2020 and 2024, we had an increase in the number of registered voters (44,161 vs. 46,645), a decrease in the number of ballots cast (37,492 vs. 36,991), and a lower turnout (84.9% vs.79.3%). Donald Trump received 18,710 votes (583 fewer than 2020), while Kamala Harris received 17,215 votes (54 fewer votes than Joseph Biden received in 2020). We also saw a higher percentage of challenged ballots due to missing or mismatched voter signatures and ballots that arrived too late to be counted (0.48% vs. 0.76%). Some of the mismatched signatures were from voters ages 18 to 24, who were not taught how to write in cursive or create a signature. To help address this in future elections, Timberland Regional Library Public Services Specialist Sean Lotz plans to conduct workshops for teens and young adults to help them develop their signatures. We plan to participate in these workshops to register young voters and upload their signatures to the voter registration database.

In retrospect, some citizens commented that this election was less eventful than the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight. “Uneventful” is exactly what we want in the professional administration of your elections.