On Monday, November 28th, the Whatcom County Auditor's Office accepted a number of ballots and letters. The ballots accepted on November 28th, put the "Yes for Whatcom Kids," aka Prop 5 special property tax levy, approximately 20 votes over the 60% threshold needed to pass. This event has effectively given it the green light to increase your property tax bill for the next 10-years.

There were a number of private citizens at the Auditor's Office who observed this. One of those observers was Doris Smith. Doris has shared her letter written to WC Auditor, Diana Bradrick, with Liberty Road. Doris' letter publicly expressed her concern about the lack of transparency that she, and others, observed when these ballots/letters were delivered to the Auditor's Office.

Another item of concern for all voters beyond the lack of transparent way that these ballots were accepted, is the actual process known as "curing the ballots." Ballot curing is typically done by partisan political groups who canvass the county looking for the people who failed to properly fill out their ballot envelope. When you do not follow the directions written on the ballot envelope your ballot will be rejected. Why do I say that voters should be concerned about this process? Because if the canvassers do find the voter whose ballot was rejected, the canvasser only informs the voter about their rejected ballot if they answer the canvasser's question correctly. In this case, the canvasser might ask, "I am taking a post-election survey to find out how you voted on Prop 5." If the voter claims to have voted Yes on Prop 5 and the canvasser is looking to cure ballots that increase their partisan issue to get more Yes votes, they offer to help the voter to fix the error(s) that caused their ballot to be rejected. If they answer No to the canvasser's question, they say thank you, leave, and the voter is left totally unaware that their ballot was rejected and needed to be cured/fixed.
There are other issues with curing ballots, in my personal opinion, but this is one of the biggest issues that all voters need to be made aware of. Does this work to improve voter integrity or transparency? Or, is this just one more way that your vote can be suppressed?

~ Liberty Road

To:  Whatcom County Auditor

Date:  November 30, 2022

Hello Diana Bradrick.

I am writing to say that it is not right, or even technically legal, to accept fresh ballots over the counter, and process them without opportunity for public observation, twenty days after the day the election was closed, which was on November 8th at 8 pm, 2022.

This is what we saw that you and the staff of the Whatcom County Election Office were doing on Monday morning, November 28, 2022. Clerks and election officials were accepting ballots and letters over the counter in the Election Office on the first floor of the Whatcom County Courthouse.

I was there and gave you the opportunity to tell me how these ballots and their processing were going to be made transparent to us, the citizens of Whatcom County. 

No answer of substance was given to me--neither at that time by conversation, nor through any of the categories that I could see at the Signature Verification meeting at 1 pm, nor at the Certification meeting of the Canvassing Board at 10 am the next morning.

The opportunity you had to act honestly, transparently, openly, and in an honorable, just, moral, and righteous manner, to vouchsafe the election to the public's trust at that moment in time has been lost forever.

No amount of explanation of what occurred in your office on that day will ever be trusted as being accurate, no matter how plausible it sounds, because you refused to accept the kind and trusting assumption, I made that day. I asked you and Amy Grasher what was going to be done with those ballots, and I received no accounting. Nor did it appear to those of us who were there that you felt any legal obligation to provide one for us.

I thought you would have surely been glad to show us all that you and your office staff were doing, while we were there in person, without hiding a single thing from us; but I was disappointed to find out you were not.

Since you refused to answer my questions through your vague replies, this raises one question in my mind which is, "What are you hiding?"

I will take this matter up with others.

We need fair and honest elections.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Doris A. Smith

360-318-1776