Elections Observers needed. Will train.
Confidence in representative government of any kind requires that the voters have confidence in the integrity of election processes. As Trump, the leader of the Republican Party persists in making false claims of election fraud and particularly casts doubt on the integrity of mail-in ballot systems, more and more voters are inclined to respond with suspicion. Local Republican Party operatives, eager to capitalize on Trump’s baseless allegations, add fuel to his allegations by disingenuously claiming that more (and more expensive) audit processes are necessary to reassure the voters. Suspicion feeds on ignorance—in the pure sense of lack of knowledge—of the processes, checks, and balances of our election systems. Since each state is responsible for its own election administration—and processes differ—knowledge of the integrity of Washington State’s election processes is important. On account of great state based variety of election processes, national news coverage is, of necessity, nonspecific. An understanding of local electoral civics is vital to voter confidence in our elections.
There is no better way to gain confidence in the conduct of our elections than to study and observe the processes yourself. Having done so, the observer is likely to become an ambassador for election integrity. In fact, Washington State Code (RCW 29A.40.100) requires County Auditors (Vicky Dalton in Spokane County) to “request that observers be appointed by the major political parties [click that for the definition] to be present during the processing of ballots at the counting center.” However, it is the responsibility of the major political party to provide observers. If no observers are put forward by a party, ballot counting proceeds anyway.
In recent years the Spokane County Democratic Party has has not managed to provide a full complement of election observers to the Auditor’s Office. In part that was related to Covid. In part it was due to public lack of awareness of the opportunity. Under the new and able leadership of the Spokane County Democrats by Carmela Conroy that is about to change.
In contrast to the Dems, the Spokane County Republicans have fielded nearly thirty observers in recent elections. Part of the concern this year is that some Republican observers might belong to the that-must-be-fraud crowd, considering that the Republican candidate to replace Vicky Dalton this election cycle, McCaslin Junior, is a follower of the My Pillow Guy (more on that later). The mere presence of a pair of Democratic Party sponsored observers as witnesses is likely to tone down any temptation some of these people might have to make a scene.
Observers are not allowed to sport Party identifiers or carry guns into the observation area.
Election observer is a volunteer position with only a modest time commitment. Contact Dave Michaud at davemeshow@msn.com or 509-263-0087 (leave a voice message) to volunteer. Provide your name, email address, and telephone contact. Dave will pass your information along to Carmela who will submit the list of observers to be trained to the Spokane County Elections Manager, Mike McLaughlin. I’m told the training is very informative. The training runs between one and two hours (depending on the number of questions) at the County Election Department at 1033 W Gardner St. The last training session for the Primary Election for Dems will be held there at 1PM on Tuesday, July 12. Please contact Dave before Sunday, July 10. If more people apply than can fit in the training session (we can hope!) they may hold an additional session. If not, there will be morning training sessions before the General Election in November.
It is the Party’s responsibility to negotiate a schedule with the volunteer observers with the intention of each pair of Dem observers filling a few two hour shifts around both the Primary and General Election counts. “You just watch. It’s easy and interesting,” to quote a friend who has served as an observer.
The more people who sign up, the fewer hours each would need to serve to cover the goal of fielding at least two Democratic Party sponsored observers at all available times.
Training now is valid for two years, 2022 and 2023. Once you’ve taken the training and observed you can speak with some authority about the integrity of the electoral process. This is civics in action!
The next 2 hour training occurs on July 12th. Call or email Dave Michaud and sign up today. Get involved—your country, and our democracy, depends on the aggregate involvement of its citizens.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. Election administration is complicated. A total of five hundred and twenty-five candidates have filed for election just within Spokane County in the upcoming August 2nd Primary, 88 of them contending for positions that run from federal (U.S. Senators and Representatives) to statewide (e.g. Secretary of State—a unusual circumstance) to Spokane County Commissioners—along with another 433 Democratic and Republican Precinct Committee Officer (PCO) candidates. Fortunately, almost all of the PCO candidates are running unopposed. Happily, WAC 434-230-100 says (among other things) that unopposed PCO candidates should not be listed on ballots. Even so, with multiple State Legislative Districts (3, 4, 6, 7, and 9) overlapping 5 new County Commissioner Districts, the ballot mailed to voters in the precinct next to yours may need to list different candidates. (See and explore the list of candidates here. Find and check out your precinct on this map. Enter your address and look under the “Districts” tab.) Printing and mailing the ballots is a complex process that demands accuracy—and that’s just one step of many that the Washington State county auditors’ offices ably conduct to assure the integrity and accuracy of our elections.