Six Washington counties have accepted Gov. Bob Ferguson’s offer to deploy unarmed, plainclothes National Guard members to assist with security around the November 3, 2026, midterm elections, KUOW reported. The deployment brings a rare federal and state security footprint to local voting infrastructure during an election cycle marked by heightened federal attention.
Guard Deployment Focuses on Unarmed Drop Box Monitoring
The accepted counties include Clark, Island, King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Thurston, though Spokane County declined the governor’s offer. The state National Guard’s “Neighborhood Watch” mission is scheduled to begin in participating counties later this week ahead of Election Day.
Guardsmen will operate in civilian clothes, observing voting sites without interacting with voters. They will remain under the governor’s command while executing security plans developed alongside county election officials. Officials emphasized that guardsmen will not empty boxes, handle ballots, or act in any enforcement capacity.
“This is not intended to be a visible presence, and folks are not going to see Guard members, for example, stationed at drop boxes,” King County Elections Chief of Staff Kendall Hodson told KUOW, noting that guardsmen will report directly to the elections director to provide additional eyes and ears.
In Snohomish County, guardsmen will watch the county’s 38 drop boxes during evening and overnight hours. Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey confirmed that guardsmen will monitor drop locations there, including the Fisher’s Landing site in Vancouver where a ballot box was set on fire two years ago, destroying hundreds of ballots.
“It was horrible. It was horrible. It was a direct attack on democracy,” Kimsey told KUOW. “You don’t get much more direct than that.”
Clark County has since upgraded its security measures by installing cameras across its 22 official ballot drop boxes, alongside added alert sensors and enhanced fire suppression systems.
Federal Monitors and Voter Roll Scrutiny Add to Election Context
State guardsmen are not the only outside observers monitoring Washington’s voting operations this cycle. The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed to King County Elections Director Julie Wise that federal monitors will be deployed on Election Day. The Secretary of State’s office also confirmed that federal monitors will visit Yakima County.
The DOJ routinely dispatches staff during federal cycles to ensure compliance with voting-rights and disability-access laws. Such federal presences remain historically rare at these specific local offices. According to local archives, King County last hosted DOJ observers during the 2008 presidential election. Yakima previously hosted court-authorized observers under a Spanish-language consent decree in 2004, though those personnel operated independently of the Department of Justice.
Brionna Aho, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, stated that there is no coordination between the Washington National Guard and the federal election monitors.
Separately, two Trump-appointed U.S. Attorneys in Washington announced claims that they found more than 400 non-citizens on state voter rolls who have cast ballots in past elections. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs criticized the timing of the announcement a week before the general election, stating it is intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results.
Despite the added security measures and political friction, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey observed that local political tensions have cooled considerably compared to the 2024 election cycle, particularly around the closely watched 3rd Congressional District race.
Under state law, observers are strictly prohibited from touching ballots or election systems, and county auditors retain the authority to remove rulebreakers. Voters seeking to track the status of their ballots can utilize the state’s VoteWA portal or monitor operations via live video feeds provided by King County.
