Snohomish County

Snohomish County Elections System

Snohomish County Auditor’s Office runs the elections system in the county. In 2024, the Elections team opened a new elections center that provides viewing areas for the public and significantly enhances the transparency of elections. Having just completed the Presidential elections, the county has significant lessons learned to make improvements to the elections flow. Students will work to examine the full lifecycle of elections management, starting from optimizing the locations of ballot boxes across the county, to the custody process of ballots from ballot boxes, to the elections center, and the end-to-end workflow of ballot management once the ballots arrive at the new elections center in county headquarters in Everett. Scope: From pickup of ballots to completed ballot counting. Parameters: 1) Optimal location of ballot boxes across county to provide equal access to ballot boxes. 2) Physical flow of ballots from the ballot box pickup point to the final validation of ballots. 3) Physical layout of the elections center to optimize end-to-end ballot flow. 4) Secure custody of ballots for the entire lifecycle of ballot management. Outcomes: 1) Ensure process provides secure custody of ballots from pickup to final validation 2) Optimally located ballot boxes across Snohomish County 3) Frequency and optimal routing of ballot pickup trips during elections 3) Optimal workflow of ballots within the Elections center in County HQ in Everett 4) Validation of technology solutions leveraged for end-to-end workflow management and control