Washington State administers a fully vote-by-mail election system. Ballot envelopes must be signed and deposited in an official drop box by 8 pm on election night, or mailed and postmarked by the date of the election. Ballot signatures are processed by county elections staff when ballots are received. Under circumstances where a signature is determined not to match state records, or where a ballot is missing a signature, the ballot is then “challenged” by county elections staff. Voters with a challenged ballot receive a written notice sent through first-class mail from the county elections office that their ballot signature could not be matched to the voter signature on file or was missing, and a declaration is included that allows the voter to present a valid signature to the county elections office to correct or “cure” the ballot. Challenged ballots that are not cured before county elections offices certify election results are rejected.
Starting in Spring 2022, the Secretary of State’s office and the Washington State Legislature have contracted with the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Washington to complete additional research investigating trends in ballot rejections, potential causes of ballot rejections, and recommendations for improving the vote-by-mail experience in Washington State.
Core research questions of this work include:
How do voters experience the vote-by-mail, ballot return, and ballot curing processes?
To what extent are challenged ballots cured by voters?
How do cure rates vary by voter demographics and geographic location?
How have trends and patterns in ballot rejections varied over time? Do rates of ballot rejections vary by voter demographics or geographic location?
What are common and best practices used by county elections offices to process ballots and support voters’ efforts to cure ballots?
Click here to learn about a November 2023 report analyzing county- and voter-level data, interviews with voters, and interviews with county elections administrators.