There’s an upcoming – and somewhat obscure – King County election in which you can vote using your cell phone or computer, and the company making that possible is headquartered right here in the Snoqualmie Valley.
The February 11th election is for the King Conservation District Board Supervisor and the company helping pilot the mobile voting is called Democracy Live, located in the Snoqualmie Ridge Business Park.
King Conservation District (KCD) is a natural resources assistance agency authorized by Washington State and guided by the Washington State Conservation Commission. Their elections typically have very low turnout – so much so that voters usually have to request a ballot in order to vote.
According to the Seattle Times, “Through a quirk of state law, the conservation district runs its own elections and those elections must be held in the first quarter of the year.”
Per the KCD website, “Our mission is to promote the sustainable use of natural resources through responsible stewardship. A five-member Board of Supervisors is responsible for overseeing all KCD programs and activities.”
KCD said it is piloting the new technology this year to expand voting access. So it has partnered with King County Elections, Democracy Live and Tusk Philanthropies to offer the mobile voting option to all registered voters in its service area, which includes all of King County and its cities, except the Cities of Enumclaw, Federal Way, Milton, Pacific and Skykomish.
Democracy Live President Bryan Finney said this is the largest mobile voting pilot in the U.S. He said the company is also the largest provider of online balloting technologies in the country.
The technology being deployed for the KCD election is called OmniBallot. Finney explained, “After the voter gets done using their mobile device to vote, the ballot is secured and stored in Amazon AWS before being downloaded onto a paper ballot by King County Elections.”
Democracy Live has been based on Snoqualmie Ridge since 2010. Bryan lives in North Bend and much of the staff reside in the Snoqualmie Valley.
Finney said, “We are dedicated to modernizing how 200 million Americans vote in our country. We have selected by the Department of Defense to provide online balloting to military and overseas voters for over a decade.”
If you are a registered voter and want to vote in the February 11th King Conservation District Board Supervisor Election, visit the KCD website HERE.
Happy voting, Snoqualmie Valley.
Comments
Great! Making it easier for more voter fraud!
Such a clever reply! 💩
I just did this, and have a few comments and observations.
First, you can use any browser, not just a mobile phone.
Second, it only asks for your registered first and last name, along with birth date. All easy information for someone to find, and potentially vote for you.
Third, there is a signature required, just like the paper mail-in ballots. But you need to use your mouse, stylus or finger to sign it. They say they will match it with the one on file to verify it’s you. I’m sure I’m like many other people in that signing on paper with a pen produces something VERY different than signing on-line with a mouse. Not. Even. Close. We’ll see if they reject the ballot due to this.
Interesting experiment. Seems like it needs more work.