1/ With over 1.36 million registered voters, King County Elections (WA) administers the largest all-vote-by-mail elections jurisdiction in the nation. In case you're wondering, here's how it works: https://twitter.com/EricCortellessa/status/1311364105727619072

2/ Ballots are mailed out 3 weeks before election, and start arriving back within days. Voters may return ballots via mail (postage paid) or numerous drop boxes. Drop boxes close at 8pm Election Day. Mailed ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, and may arrive 21 days after.

3/ Upon arrival, ballots are sorted by precinct, then sent on to signature verification. Less than 2% of ballots are challenged, mostly missing/mismatched signature (voters sign envelope). Voters can track status of ballot online, and are notified by KCE if ballot is challenged.

4/ Voters have until the certification, 21 days after election, to "cure" challenged ballots. Challenged ballots are a public record, and campaigns can canvas voters during certification period to cure them. About half of challenged ballots are typically cured.

5/ If a voter returns multiple ballots, only 1st is counted. Once the signature is verified the ballot moves on to separation, where the inner security envelope is separated from the outer envelope to ensure a secret ballot. That said "naked ballots" ballots are still counted.

6/ After separation, ballots move on to another station where they are removed from the security envelope and visually inspected for problems that might prevent scanning. This includes mangled ballots, wrong color ink (must be black or blue), stray marks, etc.

7/ About 85% of ballots go straight to the optical scanners, where they are scanned, and an image stored in secure servers in a secure limited access room, but are NOT tabulated. Once scanned, ballots are stored in a secure area, by precinct, for recounts & post-election audits.

8/ Ballots that are rejected by scanners, or set aside by visual inspection, move on to "duplication," where teams of inspectors fill out a scannable ballot based on obvious voter intent. Any question about voter intent goes on to the canvassing board, whose meetings are public.

9/ Duplicated ballots move on to the scanners, but both the original and the duplicate are stored and identified with each other so that they can be subject to inspection for recounts and audits.

10/ After 8pm Election Night, officials push button to tabulate all previously processed and scanned ballots, and results are reported by around 8:15. But process takes time, and because majority of ballots arrive Mon, Tue, & Wed, less than half of ballots will have been counted.

11/ New ballots will be added to the tally in large numbers over the next few days, and continue to trickle in over the rest of the 21-day certification period. Most winners are obvious on Election Night, and all but the closest races conceded within a week. But...

12/ Due to the chronological nature the process (ballots are tallied larger in the order in which they arrive), and due to distinct demographic differences between early and late voters (late voters tend to be younger and more lefty)...

13/ ... there can be large swings from the Election Night tally to the final results, and in Seattle, with late voters breaking hard to one candidate or another. Late information can also swing late voters. So even a 10pt Election Night lead might not be safe.

14/ Throughout weeks of ballot processing, partisan and nonpartisan observers (but no black or blue pens!) are allowed on the counting floor. It is completely transparent.

15/ After the tally, random precincts are audited by hand to assure that their numbers match official results, and are later stored for several years. WA has detailed rules for automatic recounts, hand recounts, and contesting elections in court.

16/ The end result is a safe, secure, convenient, and transparent election with a meticulous paper trail. This is how you run an election.
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