Voting changes?

Mason County Auditor Steve Duenkel told Mason County commissioners at Tuesday’s regular meeting his office hopes to try an alternative to using signatures for ballot verification.

Duenkel said last year the Legislature passed a law allowing counties to propose projects in a future election to replace signature verification with a different authentication method.

His office wants to use either a voter’s state driver’s license number or state identification number, along with date of birth, as the alternate means for ballot authentication.

The voluntary pilot program could start with the next election.

“We’ve been coordinating with the Secretary of State’s Office on that project. We think they’re going to approve it. We think that will help reduce the rate and number of ballot challenges for signature mismatch in an election,” he said.

There will also be an additional external privacy sleeve for ballot returns so “no voter information will be visible on the return ballot,” according to Duenkel.

If the proposal is approved, the Secretary of State’s Office will provide funding, Duenkel said.

Juvenile detention remodeling and repairs approved

Mason County Commissioners approved a budget amendment increase of $21,403 in REET funds to cover dormitory, fencing and lock repair and replacement at the Mason County Juvenile Detention Center, 521 W. Pine St., Shelton.

“The increasing number of juveniles has necessitated the conversion of the intervention center at Juvenile Detention into separate male and female dormitories,” according to the commissioners’ summary.

Fencing costs $6,500, four bunk beds that can be bolted to the floor are $4,900 and a failed door lock system cost $2,001 in emer-

gency repairs. Replacement of the lock system is $12,902, according to the summary.

Sheriff’s office asks for video redaction subscription

Mason County Sheriff’s Chief Criminal Deputy Jason Dracobly asked commissioners to approve a $15,000 per year subscription for video redaction software at a Monday briefing.

MCSO deputies have worn body cameras and have had in-car video systems since 2020.

“These technologies were implemented to increase transparency, produce stronger criminal cases, and provide protection for deputies against misinformation or misinterpretation of their actions. As anticipated, the use of video technology has resulted in a significant increase in public disclosure requests (PDRs) for video and audio content, requiring efficient and secure redaction of sensitive information,” Dracobly wrote in a brief.

MCSO Getac camera system has a redaction tool built into the platform, but only one redaction project can be worked on at a time. There is no auto-save and it has limited audio transcription, according to Dracobly.

“These limitations result in delayed responses to public records requests, increased staff workload, and heightened risk of error or omission,” he wrote.

There is also a legal risk from improper or delayed redactions, the brief states.

MCSO hopes to purchase Veritone, a cloud-based audio, video and image redaction software subscription, Dracobly told commissioners.

He said the current redaction method is “so time intensive. Whereas this system has an AI system built in that starts to do most of the work and all you have to do is validate it,” he said.

Commissioner Randy Neatherlin said he approved of the purchase.

“Not spending that money will cost us money,” he said.

The money will be absorbed in this year’s budget and will be added as maintenance in next year’s budget, according to Dracobly, so there will be no budget increase this year.

Commissioners Sharon Trask and Pat Tarzwell were also supportive.