Washington state counties disproportionately rejected voting ballots from people of color, men, and younger voters during the 2020 elections.
During an investigation, auditors found that the votes of Black residents were rejected roughly four times as often as those from White voters. It was found that officials rejected the ballots due to problematic signatures. They disqualified roughly one of every 40 mail-in votes from Black people.
Disproportionately Rejected Voting Ballots
The finding causes heightened concerns amid the national debate over voter access and secure balloting. Washington state already has broad experience in mail-in balloting and found that rejection rates were also higher for Native American, Hispanic, Asian, and Pacific Islander voters.
Officials from Washington said that there was no evidence suggesting that ballots cast by Black or other minority voters were knowingly singled out by poll workers. They added that none of the ballots were deliberately falsified. The primary reason for throwing out the ballots was that the signatures were missing or that they did not match the ones on file. Officials argued that the result was probably due to voter inexperience, language problems, or other issues, as per the New York Times.
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State lawmakers requested the audit which later showed that officials rejected less than 1% of votes cast in the 2020 general election. Director of Performance and IT audit for the office, Scott Frank, said that in order for auditors to determine race and ethnicity, they used a predictive algorithm from RAND Corporation.
The method is one that combines demographic data from the census with information such as surnames that are more likely to be associated with particular racial and ethnic groups. According to The Hill, Frank said that when it comes to large data sets, combining the two factors results in a very accurate prediction.
Highest Percentage
Among counties in Washington state, Franklin County had the highest percentage of rejected voting ballots during the 2020 election. The audit report, which was 69 pages long, showed that the chances of officials rejecting ballots were based on where the ballot was cast more than any other factor.
In an interview, state auditor Pat McCarthy said that the differences between countries were something that lawmakers raised concerns about while arguing that a person's place of living and who they are should not matter in voting. Franklin County alone rejected 538 ballots out of the roughly 42,000 ballots cast during the 2020 elections.
While the statewide number of rejected ballots was roughly 0.72%, Franklin County had more than double that at 1.5%. In a statement, Franklin County Auditor Matt Beaton said that while a statewide report indicated his region as having the highest rejection rate in 2020, the distinction usually changes every year.
The officials that monitored the voting ballots were people who underwent specialized training to compare a signature on the ballot to the signature on file with the voter's registration. If they found any discrepancies with the voting ballots, they would then send them over to their supervisors, according to Tri-City Herald.
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