Nearly 100 voters in Washington state have been issued replacement ballots after election workers recovered a large collection of undelivered mail from a dumpster at a Seattle park, just days before the midterm elections, according to KOMO News.
The incident came to light when a resident alerted King County Elections to suspicious mail disposal at Golden Gardens Park. County employees investigated and discovered two containers of discarded correspondence, including 92 election ballots that had never reached their intended recipients.
The KOMO report says that all 92 ballots have since been replaced, while federal postal authorities have been notified and are examining the circumstances surrounding the discovery.
King County Elections Chief of Staff Kendall Hodson said stolen mail occasionally turns up in public places during election season. According to Hodson, investigators generally find that criminals are searching for valuables or sensitive personal information rather than attempting to interfere with voting. Ballots are often simply thrown away with the rest of the stolen correspondence.
The U.S. Postal Service confirmed it was aware of the Seattle incident and indicated that its Office of Inspector General was handling the matter.
Election administrators also sought to reassure residents that the discovery does not mean the missing ballots could be used to cast fraudulent votes. Washington's election system uses individual tracking identifiers for voters and ballots, along with a review process intended to prevent duplicate submissions.
Officials examine the signature accompanying every returned ballot against the voter's registration records. Employees conducting those reviews receive instruction from the Washington State Patrol, and any questionable signatures trigger an additional verification process.
Rather than immediately rejecting a ballot with an uncertain signature, election workers contact the voter and provide an opportunity to establish that the ballot was legitimately submitted. Those discrepancies can be addressed until the day preceding the election's official certification.
KCE spokesperson Halei Watkins explained that these overlapping controls are intended to prevent anyone from successfully submitting a ballot on another person's behalf, even if election mail falls into the wrong hands.