Voters helped at Adams Co. service center on Election Day

OTHELLO — People asked questions, answered a few, showed identification, picked up a voter pamphlet. A steady stream of voters kept Adams County election workers busy at the service center at the SkillSource office in Othello on Election Day.  

Adams County Auditor Heidi Hunt said the service center is part of the effort to ensure that everyone who wants to has the chance to vote, even if their ballot went astray. 

“We’re here today serving people who didn’t receive a ballot, who can’t find their ballot, who accidentally destroyed their ballot or something, and we’re also accepting new registrations until eight o’clock,” she said. “Those are the people we are serving today.” 

A drop box was set up in the parking lot for people who wanted to ensure their ballot did not sit in an unattended drop box. 

“We have a drive-thru spot, because many people want to return their ballot – they want to look somebody in the eye and put their ballot in the box,” she said.  

It wasn’t, Hunt said, set up as an alternative polling place. 

“It’s not like, ‘I don’t want to vote by mail, I want to vote at the polls, so here I come.’ That’s not what this is about,” she said. 

People using the service center answered a few questions from the auditor’s office staff, and many of them had a few questions of their own.  

“Many people are registered to vote, but they don’t realize it, or they’re not registered to vote and they think they are. They think it’s automatically done,” she said.  

The service center was open to voters from anywhere in the state who found themselves in Othello on Election Day but hadn’t voted yet. Hunt said voters from Skagit and Yakima counties had cast ballots. 

“We don’t give them an Adams County ballot. We have a statewide system where we can access an online ballot for (the voter’s) county, and then we forward that ballot to their county,” Hunt said. “It prints what a ballot would look them for them, and they’re able to vote their ballot.” 

Voters using the service center are checked against a statewide database to see if a ballot already has been returned in that name. That also stops people from putting a ballot in the drop box and then requesting a second one at the service center. The first ballot counted cancels any others that may be out there, she said.  

“One person, one ballot,” Hunt said. 

While the service center was busy it wasn’t as busy as 2020, she said.  

As of Tuesday night, 2,882 ballots had been counted, according to the Washington Secretary of State. Adams County has 8,335 registered voters, for a voter turnout of 34.58%. Voting totals are not official until canvassed and verified by the Washington Secretary of State’s Office later this month and in early December, respectively. 

“All the voters today have been spectacular,” Hunt said. “They are coming early, they are prepared. They are patient.”

    From left: Tanner Gilbert, Guillermo Mendez, Doug Barger and John Hunt directed traffic and picked up ballots in Othello on Election Day.