More than 25 election workers already began counting up ballots a week before the Nov. 5 election as “Drift Away” by Dobie Gray plays over the speakers of the Lane County Elections office.
Lane County Clerk Dena Dawson says playing ’70s yacht rock wasn’t the only change she made when she took over. Transparency and security are paramount, Dawson says, which is why she added a 24/7 livestream of the ballot counting process on YouTube and a chain of custody logs documenting the physical security of every single ballot.
“In order for us to speak to the integrity [of this election], we have to be confident that there was never any issues with the integrity of the ballots,” Dawson says.
While counting ballots, poll workers are unable to start scanning ballots to tally votes until the polls close locally at 8 pm the night of the election. However, Dawson says they began preparing for this election over a year ago.
“It’s like we’ve planned for a party and we’re in the middle of it right now,” she says. Their work with this election cycle won’t end until January 2025. After the results are certified on Dec. 2, Lane County will conduct a risk limiting audit — a voluntary headcount of each ballot — in early January 2025 to “tie a bow” on the election.
“We still have a long race ahead of us,” she says.
Dawson says she’s outlined the eight steps a mail-in ballot takes to then become a vote online.
Ballots follow a chain of custody in Lane County. Each step is documented and written down on the chain of custody log. A ballot is never left alone with just one person — everybody is working under supervision.
First, ballots — either mailed in through the U.S. mail or dropped off at one of the 21 ballot boxes across Lane County — are received at the Elections Office. Before arriving, each is placed into a clear plastic tub with a seal and a number quantifying the amount of ballots in each. That seal has a unique serial number, with the receiving officers documenting that number on the chain of custody log.
Then there is an oversized bighead cutout of Thom Yorke, the lead singer from the English rock band Radiohead, on watching over the office. Devon Ashbridge, the Lane County public information official, says Dawson is a massive Radiohead fan.
“He’s clearly got his stink eye on everyone,” Ashbridge says of Yorke.
Under Yorke’s eye, the tubs are then moved into the secure sorting rooms, where elections workers check and double check the amount of ballots received. “I really love this process,” Alan says. Election workers do not provide their last names, given safety concerns in the current political environment.
Alan has been working as an election worker in Lane County since the primary election in May. Prior to that, he was an election judge — a poll worker — for 15 years in California.
Stuck in the sorting room all day under fluorescent lighting, Alan says he is more than thankful that early voting is becoming the norm. “By election night, we don’t have 100,000 [votes] that we need to start counting,” he says.
To check the amount of ballots, Alan puts all ballots from the same tub that came through the receiving into an automatic sorting machine which counts ballots at warp speed. From there, they put that tub through a second machine to double check their work.
The ballots are then put into yellow mail trays — along with every ballot from its original clear plastic tub.
Each ballot is then run through signature review, a process carried out by the Automatic Signature Verification (ASV) process. ASV will read each ballot’s signature and try to match it with the signature the Oregon Secretary of State has on file.
If the signatures don’t match, then an election worker uses their own two eyes to determine if the ASV is incorrect. If not, another election worker will do the same. If the signatures are still found to be a mismatch, the voter is mailed a letter from the Elections office notifying them they have 21 days to fix their signature.
Every incorrect ballot signature, regardless of if it was dropped off on Oct. 31 or Nov. 5, will have 21 days after the election to fix their signature. The last day to fix a ballot’s signature is Nov. 26.
If ASV determines the signatures match, the ballots are then sent to deconstruction. “Deconstruction is the fun part,” Ashbridge says.
At this point, ballots have yet to be removed from their envelopes.
During deconstruction, ballots are sent to 10 tables with teams of two to three people each. Ashbridge says the Elections office makes a point to “cross pollinate” people of different political parties together.
The teams remove each ballot from its envelope and thread a zip tie through the drill hole in empty envelopes to assure no ballots are left behind.
This whole process is monitored by election observers from every major political party. Janet from the Lane County Republicans says she signed up to monitor this election after the election interference she says she believes took place in 2020. Janet also declined to give her last name out of a concern for her privacy.
“We need to have people not afraid to be critical thinkers,” she says.
“I was curious with all the news about the election interference,” Janet says. “I’m assured that the process in this room seems very transparent and very consistent.”
Janet says she isn’t worried about widespread election interference this election. “I may have questions. I may have funny feelings,” she says. “The fact I’m able to come in — I’m assured of the process.”
Under the watch of Janet and other observers, ballots are then counted again and sent off to be scanned.
No ballot is scanned until the clock hits 8 pm on election night, Nov. 5.
Behind a locked door, needing two separate key cards to walk through, Lane County Elections uses closed-system vote tally machines that are never connected to the internet.
From there, ballots are adjudicated — double checked that the scanning machine got the right vote. The voting tally then gets placed on a flashdrive, to be digitally mailed to the Oregon Secretary of State.
Ballots are then stored under lock and key, only available to sworn election staff.
The vote is then certified on Dec. 2, at which point Dawson says they start their quadruple check with the hand count. She says building trust with the public is important to make sure no one questions the results.
“I want them to go and tell everyone they know in Lane County that we do this,” Dawson says.
To tune into the 24/7 Lane County Elections Livestream, go to the Lane County OR Elections YouTube account. To learn more about the 8-step process, go to LaneCounty.org.