Is there a website spreading election disinformation in Washington state?

Last week, the Washington state Secretary of State’s Office issued a statement warning voters about a new website, votewashington.info, that allowed Washington voters to type in their name and view their ballot status. The website was not an official site of the Secretary of State, and officials feared it may be an attempt by bad actors to interfere with the 2020 election and provide disinformation to voters. Officials reported the site to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

However, DHS’ investigation quickly revealed that the site had been created by two technologists and residents of the state of Washington who just wanted to help get important information out to voters. Their site used publicly available information, including from the Secretary of State’s Office, to allow voters to, among other things, look up the current status of their ballot. Many voters were concerned when the site listed their ballot as “rejected” when they had not been informed so by state officials.

Secretary of State Kim Wyman and other officials and cybersecurity experts arranged a virtual meeting with the developers on Wednesday, in which the two agreed to make some changes to their site. It now clearly states that it is not an official government site and provides a link to the Washington Secretary of State’s official site for individual voter information, votewa.gov. It also now uses more accurate codes to describe ballot status; for example, “rejected” in Washington doesn’t mean that the ballot has been rejected and won’t be counted. It is a code to officials that there is an issue with the ballot that needs to be remedied.