07/18/2007: "Ballot Tracking System Derailed"

County Auditor Milene Henley announced today that San Juan County will discontinue use of the feature of its ballot tracking system which allows individual voters to verify that their ballots have been counted.

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. The systems not only allow individual voters to verify that their votes have been counted, but also ensure that 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.

Nonetheless, public perception of the part of the system that allows the individual to verify that his or her ballot has been counted has been uneven. In particular, some privacy advocates have expressed fear that the secrecy of the individual vote was at risk. In light of these concerns, 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. Nonetheless, in light of this policy change from Olympia, Auditor 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.”