EVERETT — Snohomish County Elections received a national award for its tracking system it built with the county’s IT department, a platform now used to follow voted ballots from the moment they arrive until results are certified.
The National Association of Election Officials, known as Election Center, presented the 2026 Professional Practices Eagle Award on August 20 at its 41st annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri. The award recognizes innovation in election administration and the use of technology.
The system, Snohomish Batch Tracking, or SnoBat, was designed as ballot volume grew and the work of processing returned ballots became more complicated. The county handles elections for more than 500,000 voters in federal, state and local contests. Elections staff needed one reliable way to account for batches of voted ballots at every step. Working with the Department of Information Technology, they built SnoBat to do that.
The platform pulls information from several election systems into a single secure dashboard. It replaces paper logs and separate databases, giving staff a clearer view of where ballots are and how they move through intake, processing and certification. County officials say it was built on existing infrastructure and adaptable Microsoft tools, which let them modernize the work without a costly vendor contract.
“This national award recognizes our team’s commitment to accuracy, transparency and accountability in elections,” Snohomish County Auditor Garth Fell said. “SnoBat helps our team do their work more efficiently and gives us real-time visibility into each step of ballot processing. We’re honored that the approach has been recognized nationally.”
Viggo Forde, the county’s information technology director and chief information officer, said the project was meant to solve a practical problem without adding a large price tag.
“By using low-code Microsoft tools, we built a scalable system that can grow with the county,” he said.
Election Center presents the Eagle Award each year as part of its Professional Practices Program. Recipients are chosen by a national committee of election administrators. The organization is the largest professional association for election officials in the United States.
“Election Center congratulates the 2026 award recipients,” Executive Director Kathleen Hale said. “These achievements are a testament to their commitment to serving their voters and to free and fair elections.”
Election Center is a nonprofit association of voter registrars, election administrators and related organizations across the United States and U.S. territories. Its work includes research, training, conferences and consulting aimed at improving election administration and voter registration.
Author: Mario Lotmore
