King County Elections assures easy-to-make fraudulent ballots won’t be counted
(The Center Square) – A recent video on social media appears to show how easy it is to create and print a fraudulent ballot in King County by using a real address but a fake name. The county’s elections department, however, says its process prevents sham ballots from being counted.
The video shows someone using the OmniBallot website to create and print out an official ballot for a fake voter. The post amassed over 335,000 views on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh shared the video on his X account, while noting “this is part of the reason that [the Washington State Republican Party] has sued King County Elections over illegal use of this app.”
In September, the Washington State Republican Party filed a lawsuit against King County over the use of OmniBallot to aid voters in fixing, or “curing,” signature issues on their ballots, so they can be counted.
King County is the only county in Washington that uses the OmniBallot app, an electronic method of delivering and returning ballots.
King County Elections Communications Manager Halei Watkins told The Center Square that if someone prints a ballot through the department’s Online Ballot Marking Program, the first thing that happens when it’s received is the elections team verifies that it belongs to a registered voter, and that said voter hasn’t already returned a ballot.
If a turned-in ballot does not meet those requirements, it’s rejected. If a ballot does meet those requirements, then staff verifies that the return signature matches the one on that voter’s registration record.
“Ballot envelopes don’t even get opened until we confirm the signature is a match” Watkins said to The Center Square in an email. “It’s pretty rare that we receive a printed ballot back from someone who is not registered.”
According to Watkins, King County Elections received two unregistered ballots in the August primary election out of nearly 560,000 ballots returned. Both were rejected.
Watkins argues that the OmniBallot app is an important tool for military and overseas voters, as well as voters with disabilities.
As for the video, Watkins noted that state law around voter fraud does not require a person to succeed in fraud. It also penalizes attempts, with each count of voter fraud potentially earning a perpetrator up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $10,000.
“King County Elections does not hesitate to refer suspected cases of attempted voter fraud to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office,” Watkins said.
