VANCOUVER…- Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, offered this reaction to the arson that destroyed ballots in a Clark County drop box Monday morning.
“The ballot box at Fisher’s Landing that was set on fire early yesterday morning is in my legislative district. Common sense suggests many of the hundreds of ballots that were destroyed were cast by my constituents. It’s sad that Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey and his staff are now having to be put ballot drop boxes under constant surveillance, but I have confidence that they will do everything possible to overcome this act of lawlessness. At the same time, I’m underwhelmed by the response from the secretary of state.
“Fortunately, a previous secretary of state had the foresight to enable Washington voters to track their ballots through the VoteWA.gov website. I join others in urging Clark County voters to make use of that technology. But the tone of yesterday’s statement from the secretary of state was missing the urgency I would have expected, considering hundreds of voters have effectively been disenfranchised.
“Our counties wouldn’t need ballot drop boxes if not for the state vote-by-mail law, yet our state’s chief elections officer seems to be putting more of the burden of responding to the arson on the county auditor’s office – even though he should know this was already the busiest time of the year for county election workers.
“The law that makes it a crime to hinder a voter from casting a ballot dates to 1854, when it was created by Washington’s first territorial legislature. People need to be able to trust government to keep their ballots safe. This does nothing to inspire confidence in the vote-by-mail approach, especially for those of us who remember voting at polling places.”