Rigged
Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said Donald Trump’s claims the election is rigged undermines the confidence people have in election results.
Or what some might call the cornerstone of democracy.
“It may cause people not to participate, that will be bad enough,” said Kimsey, a lifelong Republican. “And ultimately if people don’t accept the results and we have a part of the population that doesn’t believe the people holding office are entitled to hold those offices … This is what happens in Honduras in 1980s.”
If you are unsure about what was happening in Honduras in the 1980s, the Wikipedia entry is titled, “Central American crisis,” for what it’s worth.
The voting process, Kimsey said, is a partnership between voters and election administrators.
“If a person is coming under undue influence to vote their ballot, they should contact law enforcement,” Kimsey said.
There are thousands of county auditors like Kimsey who are charged with overseeing their county’s election process.
Washington’s Secretary of State told The Seattle Times, “You would have to have a conspiracy of such grand scale that I think we would have much bigger problems than whether this election is rigged,” she said.
Wyman, by the way, is the only statewide elected Republican on the West Coast.
She also told The Seattle Times the GOP presidential claims are ludicrous and distressing.
Kimsey said he welcomes anyone to visit the county’s election office to see the procedures if they have questions.
There are a lot of processes followed to ensure the marked ballots accurately reflect the voter’s intent, Kimsey said. There are also election observers, who are volunteers from different political parties who oversee the process.
There is also a tabulation machine, which has four locked doors between it and the outside world. In addition, there are security tags with serial numbers kept on the first two locked doors. So, when the door is opened, the seal is broken. A log keeps track of who has entered and exited the room.
The Seattle Times reported PolitiFact rated Trump’s claims as “Pants-on-Fire” falsehood.
Lauren Dake
Lauren Dake covers politics for The Columbian. You can reach her at 360-735-4534 or lauren.dake@columbian.com. Follow her on Twitter .