Washington Regulations § 434-261-005 Definitions

Regulation Text

(1) "Manual inspection" is the process of inspecting each voter response position on each voted ballot. Inspection is performed as part of the initial processing;

(2) "Ballot duplication" is the process of making a true copy of valid votes from a physically damaged ballot or a ballot that is unreadable or uncountable by the tabulation system onto a paper or electronic blank ballot to ensure the ballot may be correctly tabulated by the tabulation system. The original ballot may not be altered. Teams of two or more people working together must duplicate ballots according to voter intent as per WAC 434-261-086 . A log of duplicated ballots must be signed by the two or more people who duplicated the ballots;

(3) "Ballot resolution" is the process of making changes on a voted electronic ballot image to ensure the ballot is tabulated according to the voter's intent. The changes must reflect the voter intent as per WAC 434-261-086 and the original ballot may not be altered. Changes must be made by teams of two or more people working together. A log of resolved ballots must be signed by the two or more people resolving the ballots;

(4) "Readable ballot" is any ballot that the certified vote tallying system can accept and read as the voter intended without alteration, and that meets the standards of the county canvassing board subject to the provisions contained in this title;

(5) "Unreadable ballot" is any ballot that cannot be read by the vote tallying system as the voter intended without alteration. Unreadable ballots may subsequently be counted as provided by these administrative rules;

(6) "Valid signature" on a ballot declaration for a registered voter eligible to vote in the election is:

(a) A signature verified against the voter's signature in the voter registration file attesting to the voter registration oath;

(b) A mark witnessed by two people; or

(c) A signature verified against the voter's signature in the voter registration file attesting to the ballot declaration.

(7) "Overvote" is votes cast for more than the permissible number of selections allowed in a race or measure. An overvoted race or measure does not count in the final tally of that race or measure. Example of an overvote would be voting for two candidates in a single race with the instruction, "vote for one";

(8) "Undervote" is no selections made for a race or measure;

(9) "Election observers" means those persons designated by the county political party central committee chairperson to observe the counting of ballots and related elections procedures;

(10) "Seal log" is a log documenting each time a numbered seal is attached or removed from a ballot container. The log must include the seal number, date, and identifying information of persons attaching or removing the seal. Following certification of the election, the seal log must include documentation as to why the seal was removed from a ballot container.

History

Amended by WSR 19-01-102 , Filed 12/18/2018, effective 1/18/2019

Amended by WSR 21-21-001 , Filed 10/6/2021, effective 11/6/2021

Amended by WSR 24-03-053 , Filed 1/10/2024, effective 2/10/2024

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Prior Versions of This Regulation

Version of § 434-261-005 dated 10/30/2024