Adams County Auditor candidates discuss elections, ideas for future

OTHELLO — The two candidates for Adams County Auditor detailed their ideas for auditor’s office operation during a candidate forum Tuesday in Othello. 

Courtney Fannin and Jacque Laird are running to replace retiring auditor Heidi Hunt. Both are auditor’s office employees. 

Since Fannin and Laird are both auditor’s office employees, they will not be involved with counting or handling ballots, Laird said.  

“We have safety precautions in place,” she said. 

The auditor’s office has multiple functions, and Fannin said her job involves some of those other functions.  

“I’m not participating in any of the elections at this moment,” she said. 

Fannin said she would add to the auditor’s office procedures to ensure election impartiality. 

“I think that it would be really important for us to work on an observer program. We in Adams County don't have an observer plan currently, and I would like to encourage our community to get involved and help so that we do have bipartisan participation during our elections,” Fannin said.  

Laird said professionalism is key to impartiality. 

“You have to go in and do your job and you don’t talk about any part of it to anybody about anything that you see in the elections process. It’s confidential,” she said. 

Adams County has safeguards to ensure election security, Laird said. 

“We now have an elections office, and there are security cameras in there, and there is an alarm. Our tabulators that we scan our ballots on are not hooked up to the internet,” Laird said. “Then I have to clean a thumb drive on a special device from the Secretary of State before I put it into the clear count computers, so that there's no virus going back and forth. And then when I take it out of those machines and put it in the one that is connected to the internet, I have to lock it so it's read only,” she said. 

Fannin said the auditor’s office already has safeguards in place, including a requirement that two people are present when ballots are being transported or handled.  

“I do feel like we do a good job of making sure that is taken care of. One of the ways that I think that we could improve that is by really vetting our workers and making sure that they are not part of or have any skin in the game for the election and making sure that we really offer that out to the public, and not just (use) the same friends and family that we have maybe in the past,” Fannin said.  

The candidates were asked about resolving ballot problems, and Laird said there are multiple contacts in place.  

“Part of our ballot problems are people's signatures not matching or people not signing their ballot envelopes. They do get a letter sent out the day that we receive their ballot,” she said. “They get a letter mailed out asking them to update their signature, and it has a postage prepaid envelope in there, so they just have to put it back in the mail to get it back to us, and that has to be back the day before certification. They also get a phone call two to three days after their ballot has been returned and has been rejected for signatures, and then they also get another phone call five days before the day before certification. So, they have time to get their letters back to have their ballots count.” 

Fannin said she would work to improve communication. 

“The only election outreach we have right now is talking to high school seniors, and that is just not enough. I think that we would really need to develop an outreach program, with our low voter turnout. I think it's very important to give that information to people and empower them to get out and feel confident to vote,” she said.  

Fannin added that she thinks Adams County needs to take better advantage of available out-of-county resources.  

“We are part of a bilingual language group that's called the Minority Language Committee, and it's run with several other Washington counties. I think that participation in this would assist our voters with outreach in our minority languages, and we don't currently attend those meetings,” Fannin said “I think that's something that we really need to step up and do. I also know that there's the disability advisory committee, and we don't currently have an active plan for reaching out and servicing our disabled voters, and this is something that is required by law. And I think that that's something we really need to step up and make sure that those voters also get a voice, no matter how few there are.” 

Laird said Adams County does use the tools available to it to reach voters. 

“Since we are a bilingual county, we have to put our information in both languages. The internet has to have it. The Secretary of State has (multiple) languages on their website that people can log on to, and find out information,” Laird said. 

Adams County’s geography makes some voter outreach more difficult, but there are online resources that help, she said. 

“With the disability, I send out a notice of election. It's in the newspaper and it's on our county website, and it does state in there if somebody has a disability that we have an AUV machine that they can come in and vote on,” she said. “It will read to them so they can listen to it, and then their ballot would get printed out, and they would be able to cast their vote that way.” 

Fannin said she thinks county officials need to use more of the tools available to them. 

“I think it's very important that we kind of change with the times, and I really think that it's important to get the information out in the ways that people take their information in, whether it be news or just information about the election,” she said. “That can mean a whole lot of things.” 

That would include using social media, but also more in-person contact. 

“Going out to senior citizens, going to their senior centers and hosting events in the library and just bringing things to people where they are,” Fannin said. “I know that that takes time and budget, but I just think that if we put a little more effort towards that, we could really increase our voter outreach and voter turnout.” 

Both candidates said a lot of information about auditor’s office operations is already available.  

“The election results are on our website, and important dates for elections are on our website. We do have information there for recording, and people can go and look for documents through the Secretary of State's digital archives. We do have some of it out there already on our website,” Laird said. 

Fannin said Adams County residents should have a chance to weigh in. 

“I think that it would be something that we would really need to ask our voters, like, what information do you want to know from our county? Because we have a lot of information available to provide,” Fannin said.