Perez says she’ll fight to protect mail voting

Following a meeting with Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey and a tour of the recently remodeled and expanded Clark County Elections Office last week, U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, said she is a firm believer in Washington’s vote-by-mail system and that she will fight to protect it while in Washington, D.C.

With mail-in paper ballots, “there’s no ambiguity,” Perez said. “They’re the gold standard in election security.”

In August, President Donald Trump threatened to end mail-in voting ahead of the 2026 midterm elections despite provisions in the U.S. Constitution that let states, not the federal government, decide their own election methods.

“The Constitution is not fuzzy or hazy on this issue,” Perez said.

Washington state has made allowances for people to vote by mail since the early 1980s and moved to a statewide vote-by-mail system in 2011.

On Sept. 24, Kimsey led Perez on a tour of the county elections office and showed her what happens after a ballot makes its way to the office during an election. Kimsey said Clark County has seven full-time elections workers, but that number can ramp up to nearly 200 during a presidential election.

The elections workers are trained to verify signatures on each ballot envelope, Kimsey said, and every ballot-counting procedure has system checks to ensure accuracy. Observers from the Democratic and Republican parties, as well as the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, also keep an eye on the process.

“This system works,” Kimsey said.

He said vote-by-mail also helps centralize the entire voting process, with ballots coming from across Clark County to one location — the elections office in downtown Vancouver — to be counted, verified and securely stored for up to 22 months during federal elections and 60 days for non-federal elections.

In-person polling, Kimsey pointed out, required 250 people at 75 locations.

Perez said she always has voted by mail and believes voters in Western states prefer that method to voting in person.

“I think it’s because we’re more spread out,” Perez said.

The congresswoman said she views voting by mail as an equity issue, especially for workers and parents with school-age children who may have a tough time waiting in line for hours to cast their vote on Election Day.

“Whether you have the luxury of spare time to stand all day in line or you’re trying to pick up your kids and work for a living, your vote should be counted,” Perez said.

Following the tour of the elections office, Perez said she was heartened to see where and how ballots are processed.

“It was really encouraging to see the physical security of ballots and just the orderliness of the process,” she said. “This is a lynchpin of democracy. … And I think that’s an encouragement to all of us to know how seriously it’s being taken.”

Perez said she will continue to advocate in Congress for paper ballots and for vote-by-mail election methods.

“I’m going to continue to have conversations with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle about how we can represent the perspective of many Western states that vote by mail,” Perez said. “Secure paper ballots are the gold standard, and we want everybody — all citizens — to be able to participate regardless of whether they’re … able to stand in line all day.”