SAN JUAN COUNTY ELECTIONS

10,788 ballots mailed Friday with barcodes identifying voters

posted 10/22/2007
The ballots for the Nov. 6 general election have been sent out to registered voters in San Juan County. Each ballot contains an encrypted barcode identifying the voter's name.

The Secretary of State's Office has withdrawn support for bar codes which link a ballot to a voter. County Auditor said she was told by Elections Supervisor Dan Gillepsie that the barcodes were necessary in order to run the election. She hopes to have the problem solved by the Presidential Primary.

Gillespie said the ballot barcodes will not be decrypted. Voters will not be able to look on the county's Web site to see if their ballot was received.

There are different barcodes on the envelopes. They also link to individual voters. Those barcodes will be decrypted. Voters will be able to call or email the Elections Office to find out if their envelope containing their ballot was received. The information is not going to be posted to the Web.

In 2005, San Juan County was one of the first pilot counties to use the Ballot Tracker system. Voters could log on to the Elections Office Web site, enter their name and see if their ballot had been received and/or counted. People could also log on and check on other people's ballots. All you needed to enter was a name.

The Green Party started checking and came up with a results that generated questions. Ballots were marked counted before received. Several county officials never voted. It appeared others voted at the drop box and through the mail.

Elections staff explained most of the glitches with the spouse switcheroo. If a husband and wife put their ballot in the wrong envelope it wouldn't show up. Other glitches were caused because the company was building the system as they went through the election. Some of the ballots were processed out of order.

(Editor's note: this story was going to include the link to the page so readers could check on the status of their own ballot, but the information was just recently removed while I was working on this story.) A letter from Gillespie appears in VOTE HERE's marketing material explaining the positive experience the county had with the Ballot Tracker system.

The initial cost and operating expenses until spring 2007 were covered through Help America Vote (HAVA) grants according to the Secretary of State.

According to a January, 2007 report by the Secretary of State: Each county is required to have ballot accountability procedures in place. The Office of the Secretary of State recommends the use of an automated ballot accountability system in place of manual accountability procedures. While automated systems are often more efficient, they have high ongoing maintenance costs and are therefore cost prohibitive for many counties.

In San Juan County, a lawsuit has been filed by Tim White and Allan Rosato claiming the barcodes violate state law which does not allow identifying marks on ballots.

County modifying Ballot Tracking System;
after state withdraws support

posted 07/18/2007
San Juan County voters will no longer be able to go online and verify their ballots have been counted. San Juan County Auditor Milene Henley says, San Juan County will discontinue the use of bar codes that tie ballots to an individual voter. "It is too close to our November election to change the system for this year," Henley says, "but we hope to have our system modified in time for the presidential primary in February 2008."

Ballot tracking systems were developed, with the support and encouragement of the Secretary of State’s office, in response to problems with lost and uncounted ballots—primarily in King County—during the 2004 gubernatorial election, Henley said. The systems allow individual voters to verify that their votes have been counted and ensure no ballots are lost or otherwise unaccounted for. San Juan County was one of three pilot counties to adopt such systems.

"San Juan County’s use of the system has been successful, in that it has done what it was supposed to do, and we have never had any instance of an individual voter’s right to privacy being violated," Auditor Henley said.

Tim White of the San Juan County Green Party filed suit against the county alleging the ballots violated state law.

Henley stated in a press release, the Secretary of State’s Office is in the process of revising its policy on ballot tracking and reconciliation. The Secretary of State’s office will continue to support the use of bar codes on ballots for purposes of inventory control, for ballot reconciliation, and to distinguish precincts and elections. It is withdrawing its support for bar codes which link a ballot to a voter, and therefore allow the voter to know that his or her vote has been counted.

Compliance with the new guidelines will be voluntary.

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