Clackamas County ballot sorting machine is fixed, clerk says

Published 2:44 pm Friday, November 1, 2024

A vendor has fixed the mail ballot sorter that was malfunctioning and delaying vote-counting processing, Clackamas County Clerk Catherine McMullen said at a press conference Friday, Nov. 1.

The first step in the county’s vote-counting process involves using a mail ballot sorter to take an image of the back of each ballot envelope. The envelope’s barcode is then scanned to verify that the ballot is valid and from a Clackamas County voter. It is used again after signatures are checked.

That process was disrupted when the mail ballot sorter began experiencing mechanical issues last week.

However McMullen said that a vendor visited the facility Thursday night and fixed the mechanical issue (which involved a malfunctioning sensor). The mail ballot sorter is working today, she added.

The county had processed 82,860 ballots among 319,618 eligible voters by Thursday and the backlog of ballots that hadn’t gone through the sorter was 52,000 yesterday; the county received an additional 8,400 ballots Friday while over 12,000 had been processed through the sorter.

“We do expect to stay on track and start to catch up from where we were through the week,” she said.

McMullen estimated that county voter turnout was 45% as of Friday. She reiterated that she expected the majority of votes to be counted by Friday, Nov. 8. She added that an additional goal is for all ballots that have been delivered by Monday to be included in election night results, but wasn’t sure yet whether that would be achieved.

The county clerk could not say whether the mail ballot sorter — which has reached the end of its life and will be replaced by the May 2025 election — would break down again, but the county has a plan if it does. This would involve using hand scanners to scan each ballot envelope.

McMullen also said that the vendor for the ballot sorter would remain on site for the time being and the county has utilized reassigned staffing to make up for delays.