Stevens County seeks public input on automated mail sorter after election night delays due to manual ballot processing

The Stevens County Elections Office is inviting residents to provide feedback on the potential use of an automated mail sorter following delays caused by manual ballot processing on election night.

The Stevens County Auditor’s Office released preliminary results for the 2024 general election based on ballots processed on election night, saying they only processed 10,144 ballots of the 21,688 they had received at the end of Monday.

In a news release sent out Wednesday, the Stevens County Auditor’s Office states the county currently ranks as the fourth-slowest in Washington when calculating the estimated ballots left to count, largely due to manual ballot handling.

According to the news release, the auditor’s office had been actively preparing for a mail sorter to enhance processing efficiency for years now.

In March, a formal proposal was presented to the Stevens County Commission, including a plan to cover the $220,000 cost using a combination of state and federal grants.

However, Stevens County Auditor Lori Larsen said grants Stevens County received came with specific timelines, some of them requiring to be used by the end of June of this year.

Ultimately, even with the critical presidential election year, the county commissioners chose not to make the investment for this election year, according to the news release.

“A mail sorter would’ve helped us receive in-ballots much more rapidly,” Larsen said. “Right now, it’s a very hard process.”

Nationwide, distrust of ballot counting machines mounted after the 2020 presidential election when some conservative commentators theorized that the devices could have been to blame for former President Donald Trump’s loss that year. Dominion, the manufacturer of some of these machines, sued Fox News over the claims and settled with the media company last year for $787 million.

Larsen said there has been concern of an automated mail sorter within the last year, including from over a hundred residents who signed a petition earlier this spring with a call to return to in-precinct hand counting.

Not long after, the board of county commissioners sent a written letter in June to Larsen citing the concerns from residents as part of the reason for declining the investment, as well as “economic concern within the county,” and recommended Larsen pursue further citizen engagement and support for the investment.

If she gains enough support, the letter states they are willing to reconsider the ballot sorter request.

“We’re a medium-sized county, a little bit on the smaller end of medium, but we are by no means a small county,” Larsen said.

“In a lot of ways, I think it’s time for Stevens County to embrace that and get the tools and the equipment and even the mindset that allows the government to meet that need, that size and population needs.”

Despite current delays, Larsen said every ballot will be included in the certified results on Nov. 26.