Q: With talk about “cheating” in the election, how secure is our voting process?
A: Pretty secure, according to Riley County Clerk Rich Vargo, who’s been in charge of elections here for 23 years.
As officials continue to process ballots after Tuesday’s election, President Donald Trump has alleged that his opponents are attempting to “steal” or “rig” the race and that voting by mail is a “corrupt system,” calling for counting to cease.
But as far as Vargo is concerned, election workers are merely following state law. Vargo has overseen many elections in his career since being voted into office himself in 1997.
As long as mail-in ballots are postmarked by Nov. 3 and received by Friday, they are legitimate ballots and can still be counted, Vargo said.
Trump suggested in September that voters should test the integrity of the system by trying to vote both by mail and in person, though he later clarified that he meant voters should verify their votes were counted.
Vargo said people thinking there can be double voting is a common misperception, but if someone in the county has requested a mail-in ballot but then decides to vote in person, their name would be checked against a computer system to see if they already had been issued a ballot. If so, they would be issued a provisional ballot then and there.
When staff members evaluate those provisional ballots, they will only validate one ballot per person.
“There’s so many security measures we have in place in the back end that people just really don’t understand, but we’re very confident in the system that we have in Kansas to eliminate people voting twice,” Vargo said.
Not to mention intentionally voting more than once is illegal in every state, as well as a federal offense, which serves as another deterrent against fraud.
Even so, Vargo has previously said to The Mercury that any sort of voting fraud or interference could be easily detected because of the numerous laws and procedures to protect the election process.
The president also has alleged there could be inaccuracies or even intentional suppression by pollsters. While yes, people can make errors, there is no evidence to suggest there is widespread tampering going on.
There are still more than 1,400 provisional ballots the Riley County Clerk’s office must process. Vargo said in a typical election, 60-70% of them are deemed valid.
Vargo added that there also are about 1,400 advance voting mail-in ballots that were requested in the county but have not yet been returned. However, he said, it’s difficult to say how many of those will actually be sent back.
“We never expected 100% of them to come back because some people simply changed their mind and went to the polls, or sometimes people just choose not to participate after they’ve requested a ballot,” he said. “That’s their legal right.”
Voting results will not be official until the canvass on Nov. 16, the date set by state law.
You can submit a question to this column by e-mail to questions@themercury.com, or by regular mail to Questions, P.O. Box 787, Manhattan, KS 66505.
