Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann outlines canvass and election integrity plans after spring vote

County Executive Josh Schoemann said Thursday that Washington County’s canvass team will begin a countywide inventory of municipalities and wards to validate the results of the recent spring election and reconcile the official returns.

"Our canvass team is going to start doing the county canvass where they inventory every municipality, every ward, and kind of go through what happened and make sure that everything is validated," Schoemann said, calling the work "a positive step for election integrity." He identified County Clerk Ashley Reichert and her staff as leading the county’s verification efforts.

Schoemann thanked election poll workers, municipal clerks and voters for participating in the spring election and reported turnout of "almost 45%," saying that figure likely places Washington County among the top five to 10 counties in the state for a spring contest. He described the turnout as "very good" while urging continued improvement ahead of larger fall contests.

Looking ahead, Schoemann said the county is preparing for two upcoming elections — in August and November — and is working with municipal clerks to expand in-person early-voting options. "We're also going to be talking more about how we can create more opportunities for you to be able to have easy access to vote early and do it safely and follow the law," he said.

Schoemann also described past audit practices and the county’s plans for future verification. He said the county audited results in November 2022 and 2024 by "hand counted not the ballots themselves, but the number of votes," and that officials intend to pursue similar audits in the coming November election.

He invited public input on ways the county can help municipal partners make voting easier for residents and harder to cheat, saying: "What I want to really hear from you about is different ways and improvements in our process that we as a county can help our municipal partners to make it as easy as possible for you to vote and as hard as possible to cheat."

The County Executive closed by reiterating the county’s focus on voters and thanking residents for participating. He encouraged listeners to prepare for the August and November contests and to tune into future WashCo Weekly updates for more details.

Provenance: The article is based on Schoemann’s WashCo Weekly remarks; topic introductions and conclusions appear in the county executive’s remarks beginning with the canvass announcement (topic intro: SEG 007–SEG 014) and concluding with his closing remarks (topic finish: SEG 081–SEG 092).