This week on Inland Journal. the race for Spokane County auditor.
Vicky Dalton has run Spokane County’s elections for nearly three decades, but she retires at the end of the year. She’ll be replaced by either Callie Gee or Michael Cathcart, the candidates who finished one-two in the primary election in August. Gee is a Democrat, Cathcart a Republican.
The auditor’s office administers elections in the county, but it also maintains public records, issues titles and licenses for vehicles and performs other financial and auditing functions.
This hour, we’ll hear the two candidates answer questions at a recent forum sponsored by the NAACP.
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Callie Gee: My name is Callie Gee. I was born and raised here in Spokane and got the opportunity to go to Washington State University, where I studied economics, accounting, and finance, and that led me to a great job at a public accounting firm here in Spokane, where I've been working with complex financial issues, compliance, reporting, and detailed records keeping, which leads me to hear why I'm running for Spokane County Auditor. The County Auditor is in charge of administering elections, making sure that your ballot gets in your mailbox, and that when you send it back, it's accurately and efficiently counted and verified.
So at a time where our election security is under pressure, not just from our federal government, but from the local GOP party wanting to get rid of our vote by mail, I promise to stand with every Spokane County resident and make sure that we continue to have the right that we all voted for to vote by mail. And it's not just an elections office. The County Auditor is also responsible for the financial services, licensing, and recording, which I'm sure we'll get to talk about in the questions. So, thank you.
Michael Cathcart: I'm a husband. I'm a father of two young children. Glad that both my parents, as well as my wife and kids, could be here today. And for the last seven years, or just shy of seven years, I've served on the Spokane City Council, where I've had the privilege of representing some of Spokane's most diverse neighborhoods in northeast Spokane. Through that, I have served as finance chair for the city of Spokane. I have served as council president pro tem, and have held a number of different regional leadership roles as well.
I'm running for Spokane County Auditor because public trust matters. For the first time in 28 years, we are going to see a new County Auditor elected here in Spokane County. As your auditor, my commitment to you is to lead with sunlight, is to show you the work to protect your ballot, to ensure that your votes are accurately tallied, and to make sure that your finances, county finances, are being watched closely, and that service is provided equally for every single individual who comes through our doors. I'm proud to be endorsed by our current retiring auditor, Vicky Dalton, as well as Council President Betsy Wilkerson, whom I've had the pleasure of serving with on the City Council. And in both cases, there's going to be instances where we disagree. Council President Wilkerson and I have disagreed on a number of things, but they know my work ethic and have supported me because of that. So I will leave it there. Thank you all.
DN: We have a round of five questions now. Question number one, Kingsley Ugorji for Mr. Cathcart first.
Kingsley Ugorji: The first question I'm going to ask you today is, if elected, what would be your three highest priorities during your first year and what specific measures should the public use to evaluate whether you accomplished them?
MC: I appreciate the question. For me, the three highest priorities, and there's a lot of things that really are encompassing in this job.
Some things are going to get the short end of the stick by limiting it to three. But first and foremost, it's ensuring that the transition in leadership is smooth, that there are no gaps in service as a result of that transition. Obviously, when you've had the leadership for 28 years, it's an immense haul to change over to a new leader, to ensure that we don't lose a lot of that institutional knowledge.
And right now, at a time where the county is facing a substantial budget deficit, $30 million in deficit right now, and at least $400,000 are coming in cuts to the auditor's office, if not more, it's really, really crucial that we are very strategic and plan well for that transition.
Secondarily, it's not going to sound sexy at all, but payroll. The current workday payroll program that has been put in place for the last few months has not been implemented well, and has resulted in a number of issues that have impacted employees, as well as other departments and agencies in the county. And so that has to be corrected. We cannot allow for that to continue on as it is.
And then third and foremost, it's going to be election transparency. I hear from so many folks on all sides of the aisle, that they want to make sure that their vote is protected, that their ballot is protected, and that their vote is counted accurately. And that is what I'm committed to do.
There's a number of things with it that go along with that. I believe we should expand our post-election audits, so that we are showing the work. Again, it's part of my mantra of transparency in all that we do. I want to lead with transparency first.
So we're going to show the work with expanded audits. I want to look at objective standards that might be able to help ensure that the proper individual who should be voting with their mail-in ballot is the right individual. And the state has already authorized a pilot program to do that. And so I'm very interested in pursuing that. And then also live streaming our different, the canvassing boards and things of that nature.
DN: Callie Gee, two minutes.
CG: All right, thank you. So my number one priority is going to be ensuring that the community can see where our tax money is going. I think right now there is a bit of a gap. I think it's difficult for people to clearly see that.
And one of my top priorities is to create a web portal where any resident can go on and see exactly where their tax money is going, where the revenue comes from, and what it's mostly spent on. And as an accountant, I mean, these are things I do all the time, looking at large, large chunks of data and breaking them down in ways that ordinary people can understand. I don't think that someone should have to have an accounting degree in order to understand our county finances. And so that will be one of my main priorities.
Like I sort of alluded to in my opening statement, another big priority is protecting vote by mail and ensuring that residents know that our elections are being administered according to the law, and that we can improve education and communication.
That would be my third priority, is bringing in the community, letting people know that there are really great ways where you can track your ballot, make sure that it was counted.
And also I think we should improve in faster ballot processing. All of those coming together with public trust, the only way that people are going to trust our county government is if they can see it. We can't just demand that they trust us. And so I would want to bring in members of the community and have a bipartisan committee that can really look at where we are lacking in public trust, where is that coming from, and what can we do to address that.
DN: Next question. We'll have Callie Gee start with this.
Quentin Baker. All right, this next question is regarding voting access and emergency preparedness. Wildfires, severe weather, displacement, and other emergencies can disrupt access to ballots and voting services. What steps would you take to ensure affected residents can receive, replace, and cast their ballots on time while maintaining election security?
CG: Yeah, that's a very important question, especially with recent events around the primary, with the devastating wildfires that really affected our community, and also affected some people's ability to vote, and so when things like this happen, natural disasters, it's important that there is a set plan in place that the election officials follow.
And it's also really important that we communicate with voters. Like, for example, I heard that a lot of people found out just this year that you can actually go on your computer at home and print out a replacement ballot and mail that in.
And so those are the kind of things that really expand accessibility and will help people who might be disenfranchised or facing extra barriers to voting to be able to do that.
I also think that, you know, in-person options for people who need it, I support continuing to invest in those for when people, like, if their ballot box in their community has been melted, what happens? They should be able to go to the auditor's office and have great customer service and be able to get their ballot replaced.
Additionally, we've seen some issues with vandalism of ballot boxes that goes beyond just natural disasters. And so there needs to be a plan in place to protect ballot boxes from any kind of interference. You know, I think we can look at surveillance, look at different kinds of fireproofing the ballot boxes.
But yeah, overall, I think number one is having a good plan in place. And when things happen, when mistakes happen, when there are errors, that we fix them and rectify those plans so that they don't happen again. And also that we continue to adequately communicate with the community when things happen.
DN: Mr. Cathcart.
MC: Yeah, thank you for the question. Obviously very timely and pertinent given what has recently occurred and it goes well beyond, obviously, natural disasters.
We had an incident in Vancouver just recently, a couple years ago, where a ballot box was essentially set on fire. And what came to be understood as a result of this is that there really is no plan to coordinate with our first responders when it comes to protecting your ballot that may be in a drop box.
And so what we have to do, I think, right away is we do need to take an audit of all of our different drop boxes, see what sort of surveillance is already there, work with the Secretary of State who has an election security grant that we can access to shore those up, to make sure there's proper lighting, proper cameras, etc. So all of that is protected. And then we need to work with our police, our fire, to make sure that if there is an incident, they know exactly how to respond.
In Vancouver, they were stomping on ballots, potentially revealing how individuals have voted. I mean, that is just an absolute violation of privacy, of your voting rights, and we cannot allow that to happen. And so you have to plan well ahead to make sure that when an incident occurs, everybody knows exactly what they're to do. If there's another fire, who is going to go and empty the ballot boxes? This was a big issue right now because the auditor cannot send staff in to go empty a ballot box when there is an order to evacuate. And so we need to come up with a strategy where we have a safe, protected, trustworthy way of making sure those ballots do not end up getting burned up because we simply could not access that ballot box in time.
So there's a number of things that we've got to do, but thankfully there are some grant dollars that we can access to start shoring things up, make them better.
Unfortunately, there really is no fireproofing yet, but there's a lot of technology work that's being investigated by a lot of folks around the country. So maybe more to come on that.
DN: Next question. Mr. Cathcart will get first whack at it. Jorge Guerrero.
Jorge Guerrero: All right. This one is election integrity and mail ballot administration. Our voting systems are facing increased scrutiny across the country. What strategies would you implement to ensure that ballot mail-in ballots are processed accurately, securely, and on time while maintaining the transparency and compliance with state and federal law?
MC: Yeah. I mean, first and foremost, the job of the auditor is to implement the law. It's to follow the law. It's not to make policy. It's not to make changes that is not allowed under state or federal law. So that's first and foremost.
But secondarily, we need to make sure that it is absolutely clear how we are protecting individual ballots that are being returned, mailed out, and then returned.
I fully believe that everybody should have the right to vote in the manner in which that is most effective for them. And so if that is mail-in, as it is for a vast majority of folks, great. We need to make sure that we are protecting that and keeping that going. If it's an in-person option that folks want, I would love to create more options for voter service centers, mobile service centers, places where you can go to get that assistance to vote in person. And I think that there's a lot that we can do there, resource dependent, of course, but ways that we can help engage and encourage voters in our community to make sure that they are getting those ballots in.
Furthermore, on the transparency side, as you talked about, observation is a huge important thing. And I keep getting a lot of feedback from folks who have struggled to observe in a real effective manner inside the auditor's office. And so what we can do is bring together a group of folks who are affiliated with the Republicans, the Democrats, and unaffiliated to really start analyzing internally what are the barriers to better observation. What are some things we could do, whether that's an internal camera system, a public facing camera system, a closer ability for individuals to be closer to where ballots are processing. Granted, privacy is a huge issue, so we have to make sure that there's no potential for violating somebody's privacy rights.
Furthermore, we can look at objective standards for ensuring that these ballots are accepted. We hear a lot about people who are disenfranchised because their signature isn't accepted, or on occasion ballots get through where the signature should not have, should have been caught.
We can look at some objective measures that would protect from that. So very interested. And then expanding post-election audits.
Again, show the work, show the work, show the work. Folks need to believe and know that their vote absolutely counts.
DN: Callie Gee.
CG: Yes, election integrity is at top of mind, I think, for everyone right now.
Spokane County has an incredibly secure history of running elections. We have one of the best systems in the state, in the country, and I think Vicky Dalton has done an incredible job and her team. There are some really experienced leaders working on our elections, and I think that people need to be brought into this process more.
I think that sometimes people can feel left out, feel like election processes are so far out of reach for me to even be able to be a part of, but I really think that bringing community members in and showing them this is the process and it works, and it's secure and efficient, and mail and voting, vote by mail, is efficient and secure, and so many people rely on it, whether that's rural residents, you know, parents who might not be able to make it to the ballot box and to vote in person, and people with disabilities, all sorts of people really rely on that, and so I think we need to focus on investing in processes that are proven to work instead of redirecting resources and money into something that, like bolstering different precinct-based polling places. I think that the return on investment for taxpayers just wouldn't be worth it, so I think that we should invest in the system that we have, and that means, like, that means improving ballot tracking as well as investing in faster ballot processing, so those are the things that I would focus on as auditor to continue to make sure that our elections are secure, free, and fair.
DN: Next question will come from Kingsley and we'll start with Callie Gee.
KU: All right, so this next question is about accessibility, efficiency, and customer service. Residents interact with the auditor's office for elections, recording documents, licensing, and other services. What changes would you make to improve accessibility, efficiency, and customer service for people of different languages, disability, technology, transportation, or other access needs?
CG: Yeah, thank you for the question. I think that's especially important in a rural county like Spokane.
Often it can be hard for people to come in to access those services if they live far away or have disabilities, and we also need to make sure that there are accessible options for people who speak different languages to come in and make sure that they are being served at our vehicle licensing if they need a marriage license or help with the ballot.
One of the things that the auditor's office is working on in the next coming year is transitioning, at least allowing an option for marriage licensing online, which is, you know, something that will help people who might not be able to make it into the office or if that's just more convenient for them. So I think that we should look at ways where technology can help us be more efficient and accessible without sacrificing security. I don't think that everything needs to be changed online, but I think there are a lot of, you know, really important, really good opportunities for us to make use of technology and ensure that people are receiving the services they need.
When I was growing up, I worked with my family's small business before I went off to college to study business, and I really learned there how important it is to support the people, your employees, so that your employees can adequately serve your customers.
This job is a big customer service job, and so I will make that one of my absolute priorities to make sure that everyone that walks into that office or is accessing resources online is fully supported and is able to get those services that they need.
DN: Mr. Cathcart.
MC: The first thing I think we need to do is coordinate with our existing staff because they're the front line. They're going to know exactly where the improvements can be implemented right away.
So that's first and foremost, but secondarily, it's actually a really exciting time because the county has just approved a new recording system, and so the new auditor will be implementing this likely in the first quarter, at least that's my plan, of next year.
And with this new system, obviously access is going to be a substantially improved for online. The user interface will be better. The ability to purchase marriage licenses, you know, 3,000 individuals go through the county auditor's office every year to purchase a marriage license, and so if we can divert a number of those online, that helps reduce the number of folks in line at the counter. That's going to be an improvement.
Secondarily, it's also going to provide the option for folks to sign up for recording alerts and this is something folks have been pining for a very long time. Other counties have it, and this will enable, it's not going to prevent, but it will allow you to know very fast if something hinky is going on with any documents that are in your name. So if somebody's trying to commit fraud under your name by filing something and recording it with the auditor's office, you're going to get alerted right away. If somebody's trying to do something with your property deed, you're going to get alerted right away. So there's some really awesome improvements.
And then I'll just say on language access, this has been a huge priority of mine at the City of Spokane, and starting in 2022, it really became a realization as we were trying to deal with CARES dollars that so many groups had barriers when it came to non-English speakers. And so making sure that we have access to everything in other languages, which we can easily do, I believe, and plain English descriptions of things as well for folks who maybe are just struggling to understand.
These are really important accessibility tools because at the end of the day, you cannot hold government accountable if you don't have access to what they're doing, and that's why this is so important.
DN: Final round of questions. We'll start with Mr. Cathcart and Quentin Baker.
QB: All right, this next question is regarding qualifications, financial oversight, and professional standards. The auditor plays an important role in county financial systems and reporting. What background, skills, and experience prepare you for these responsibilities, and how would you ensure the office follows applicable accounting, financial control, and professional standards?
MC: Yeah, thank you very much for the question. I really appreciate it.
You know, I've spent obviously the last seven years of my life working on the city council, serving in a number of leadership capacities, but leading on budget and finance has really been an emphasis of mine because it is so important that we get that right.
Your tax dollars are so precious. We need to make sure that we are not misspending a single penny. And so this has really become an emphasis of mine, and long before joining council as well in my career, whether it was as an executive director of a non-profit organization, or a government affairs director, or even working in the state Senate. All of these have been building upon throughout my time in public service and in my career.
And so I think that there's just a lot of things that we can be doing, and I really appreciate the platform that was brought up earlier because this is something that I submitted a year ago for us to consider at the city. And things move very slow at the city, so it's not happening anytime soon, but it is something that we can do at the county, and that is making sure that you have absolute direct access to every penny that is being spent.
And further than that, that you are accessing the enabling documentation for that expenditure, be it a resolution or an ordinance, the contracts, etc., and identifying the very specifics of what you are getting for those dollars.
So if you're spending a million dollars on homelessness services, what are the specific services that were purchased with that million dollars? How many individuals were helped? We need to know these kinds of facts and data points because at the end of the day, again, it's really important that folks can hold their government officials accountable, and that includes the auditor's office as well.
And so when you know exactly what decisions are being made, how your money is being spent, then you are able to take that next step and hold folks accountable, and that to me is so important. We need to make sure that we are adding more controls to ensure that we are preventing fraud. There's just been a number of instances, I believe, where we can shore up some of these types of issues.
DN: Callie Gee.
CG: Yeah, I think that often people think of auditor's office and they forget about the financial services part, but the auditor is the chief accountant for our county.
Our budget is about $983 million dollars, and that is a lot of money, and that is our money. That money belongs to us, and I think that you should demand that your auditor has the professional experience and education in accounting and finance to be able to adequately manage and communicate what that money means for you.
As a public accountant, I've learned how to break down these large amounts of money into really more digestible pieces, and I think that it's so important for trust that people can see where their money is going, and I think that the auditor, excuse me, so I really think that our tax money, you should be able to see where it goes because, excuse me, I'm sorry, I've been working all day and my brain's a little crazy. The financial services is one of the most important responsibilities of the auditor, and I promise that I will take that seriously and ensure that your tax dollars are stewarded responsibly and communicated to you how we're using them. Thank you.
DN: That’s Callie Gee, a Spokane tax accountant who’s running for county auditor and the right to replace the retiring incumbent, Vicky Dalton. Her opponent is Republican Michael Cathcart, a Spokane city council member. The venue was a forum sponsored by the NAACP on October 1.
