CLARK COUNTY Washington (KPTV) – After long lines around the Clark County election office Tuesday night, the county auditor, responsible for counting all the votes, declared 2024 to have been the craziest election that he ever supervised.

The Clark County Elections Office handled everything from cremated ballot boxes to unprecedented in-person turnout.

“Last night there were 400 to 500 people in line,” said County Auditor Greg Kimsey. “It’s definitely not typical. This was extraordinarily untypical.

Kimsey has been county auditor for 26 years.

On Wednesday morning, Kimsey said he had no idea why in-person attendance so close to the Tuesday night deadline was so important.

“I have no idea, no idea at all,” Kimsey said. “This is now my seventh presidential election. In the previous six presidential elections, at 8 p.m. we might have maybe 10 people in line for help on election night.”

Even though it wasn’t normal, he says his office made sure everyone who showed up got what they came for.

“We established who was the last person in line at 8 p.m.,” Kimsey said. “We gave a little chip to each person, from the last person in line to the front of the line, and each of those people received a ballot, registered to vote, last night.”

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While the crowds outside the office have left, the work inside is only just beginning.

On Wednesday, 150 election officials conducted an audit, during which they manually counted the results of 600 ballots, comparing them to those from voting machines.

“This is not an audit of the results, but an audit of the system to make sure it’s working the way it’s supposed to work,” Kimsey said. “Every audit we have performed has proven that the voting system machine, hardware and software are working perfectly. »

For at least the next five days, election workers will conduct ballot inspections, which involves making sure ballots can be read by voting machines. They will also work to identify any rejected ballots. But just because a ballot is rejected doesn’t mean it won’t count. These problems can be resolved through a process called ballot curing.

“Recently, Washington State legislation has made it much easier for people to repair their signature. They can just call us with their driver’s license number or the last four of their Social Security and if they call us we can sort out their vote over the phone,” Kimsey said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, about 2,200 ballots had been challenged and could be thrown out if they are not corrected.

• If your ballot is rejected, the elections office must call, text, or email you within three days. You can track your vote online to see if it has been accepted or rejected and if it needs to be healed.

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