Highlights

The Mission

We are a volunteer only team of citizen researchers offering our discoveries to you to spread the word and educate others about the election process. We believe that an informed public is necessary for making what we view as much needed changes to the way our elections are administered.

Over the past couple years we have studied the election process within Washington state. We have shared much of our findings with you on this website. Be sure to browse the NEWS section to go back and see some highlights. Everything presented herein is a result of intensive research and investigative studies.

From this we have concluded that our the present election system is far too complicated. To sufficiently comprehend it requires voters to spend far too much time looking into it than most of them have available. That in itself is a very powerful argument against having such a complicated process in the first place.

It needs to be simplified so that the average voter can understand what’s going on without spending hours to do so, e.g., having same day voting, signing in at the precinct level, using paper ballots and hand counting. That alone would for the most part eliminate the complication as well as opportunities for fraud to occur.

With that being said, we try to do as much research as possible to make sure what we’re saying is accurate. But due to the complicated nature of the system we cannot guarantee that what we present is always 100% accurate. If you come across any error, please let us know and we will fix it.

The Truth About Washington’s Elections

Elections in Washington state are undeniably vulnerable and susceptible to fraud. The entire process is flawed and cannot ensure a free and fair, or even accurate election. Our research has shown there are major issues with voter registration, mail-in ballot delivery, vote counting systems, election management and records preservation.

For the latest updates and research findings, visit the NEWS page.

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Resource Pages

Observer Report

Election observer report for Washington state.

Get Involved!

We can always use another set of hands! There is a lot of work to be done! Please fill out the following form to get started. Keep an eye out for additional information about volunteer opportunities that pop up on this page. We look forward to working with you!

Voter Registration Challenge Process

Note: All forms also located at the bottom of the page. The Problem Every ballot must be assigned to a registered voter. Because Washington is an all-mail-in state, each registered voter is issued a ballot as long as their status is on record as “active.” If there are extra people on the list of registered […]

Election Observers

Volunteer as an Election Observer Elections are open for public observation. We need as many observers as possible to watch the processing of ballots for the entire time these activities are taking place. Counties start opening envelopes, checking signatures, scanning adjudicating the ballots weeks before the day of the election. Already an Observer? If you […]

Voter Verification and Research Tool

Welcome to the Who Counts the Votes Voter Research Tool—your resource for checking the accuracy of voter rolls in Washington State. This updated tool provides election records for registered voters, with data available through October 2024, including participation in the 2024 general election. Instructions Search by name OR address to view state registration data for […]

Contact

Connect with us – We want to hear from you! To share information regarding elections within Washington state, you can send us a message. We are documenting everything and creating records of all the issues we discover, and problems that other people bring to our attention. If you witness a real crime, please report this […]

Terms & Conditions

Use of this website constitutes your acceptance of these terms: Whocountsthevotes.com uses information which may be copyrighted material which we have not obtained permission to use by the owner. This information is used to further the understanding of the election process and constitutes “fair use” of the material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section […]

Call to Action

Election Observers If you are interested in becoming an election observer, or to fill out the observer survey, please visit the Election Observers page HERE Voter Registration Challenges To help clean the voter rolls in your area, visit THIS PAGE. How to Audit an Election Through Public Records Requests Videos The following four videos explain […]

Election Laws

Washington State laws are dysfunctional by design. The relaxed laws and their many loopholes allow for bad actors to manipulate every process of our elections. The state traded accessibilty and equity for security and accuracy. Though supposedly intended to promote voter confidence in the election process, it’s probably fair to say that changes made to […]

Elections by Mail

Elections by mail caused the state of Washington to issue a total of 361,996 more ballots than there were registered voters for the 2020 general election, according to information we obtained from the SOS. That is 7.5% more ballots than voters. Washington conducts elections entirely by mail Vote by mail was established without a vote […]

Who Counts the Votes?

The Mission We are a volunteer only team of citizen researchers offering our discoveries to you to spread the word and educate others about the election process. We believe that an informed public is necessary for making what we view as much needed changes to the way our elections are administered. Over the past couple […]

News

What We Learned

Sign up for email updates below and check back, as we are regularly posting new information and updating ongoing events! We could use some help! Key Issues and Vulnerabilities in Washington’s Election Process During the course of our research, we have covered a lot of ground, and made a ton of progess in […]

OmniBallot On Demand Ballot Printing

King County allows anyone to create official ballots for anyone, at any address, without verifying eligibility or identity.

Concerns and Anomalies in King County Election Process

This article will focus on the Commissioner of Public Lands race. We are awaiting records on other races but had…

Washington’s Thirty Day Residency Requirement for Voters Was Quietly Demolished

In November of 2023, the Washington State Alliance for Retired Americans filed an AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF…

Critical Flaw in Washington Election System in Conflict With State Law?

Sequel to How Election Laws Are Being Broken… It appears the logic that’s being used in the State’s VoteWA system…

Interfering With Citizen Oversight of Elections Through Delayed Records

Government Oversight Public records requests are one way that citizens can oversee their government’s activities. There are some circumstances that…

Undeliverable Ballots

Undeliverable Ballots from the 2023 General Election Washington’s vote by mail process includes the counties sending a ballot to every…

Possible Washington State Election Law Violations

State statute RCW 29A.08.620 requires counties to request change of address (COA) information from the postal service for all mail ballots….

Washington Outsources Censorship for Election “Threats”

Washington State’s New Censorship Plan We have previously reported on the attempt of Washington State “elected” officials’ efforts to silence…

Hand Counting Challenges for Washington State

Earlier this week there was a hand counting demonstration presented in Mason County. The presentation was wonderful. However, it is…

Skamania County 2022 Cast Vote Record Analysis

Cast Vote Records are difficult to obtain in Washington State. Recent legislation declared them exempt from public disclosure. We have…

King County – Election Fraud Epicenter in WA

Updated 9/29 We will continue to update this article as this unfolds. Please check back for updates regularly. Why it…

What’s Wrong with Voter Rolls?

Established by federal law in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), current voter rolls are state centralized databases…

HB 1816 Prohibits the Forwarding of Ballots

Background on Mailing Address Option Washington state election law allows voters to receive their ballots at a location other than…

HB 1592 – Ranked Choice Voting in Presidential Primaries

Changing the Way We Vote A House Bill was introduced that could significantly change the way voters in Washington elect…

HB 1220: Universal Civic Duty Voting

Required Participation in Elections? HB1220 requires residents to register to vote and to submit their ballot. There is a companion…

Who counts the votes in Washington state?

What did he say?

The county auditor is the “ex-officio supervisor” for the elections within their county. Each county auditor then reports to the Secretary of State (SOS) who is responsible for the election results and voter registration management at the state level. There are many people who play a role in counting the votes. However, it is a machine which does the actual counting.

Tabulation

Election systems have multiple components, but tabulation is the act of recording and adding the votes to get the totals. It happens when the ballots are scanned, and their images recorded by the optical scanner. Ballots which are unreadable by the scanner according to the software’s settings are sent to adjudication. The systems have an adjudication feature built into the scanner’s software, which allows an algorithm within the machine’s software to decide who the voter intended to vote for.

If the machine doesn’t automatically adjudicate the ballot, election staff use the “resolver tool” to review an image of the ballot, and then records the voter’s “intent.” There is a fine line between processing the ballots and the tabulation of the results. In many cases there is nothing else required after the ballots are scanned, other than to instruct the machine to display the vote totals in a “format which can be read by humans”.

Vendors

In Washington state, the tabulators were purchased from 4 different vendors. Clear Ballot equipment is used in 18 of the 39 counties, including Pierce, Snohomish, and King, the three with the largest populations. Hart Intercivic machines are used in 15 counties, ES&S is used in 5, and one county uses Dominion machines. Check out some of the concerns we have with the tabulation process and equipment.