Voters will see changes starting with primary
BY WARD BYERS, News Editor

ward byers
Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, left, listens to Chamber of Commerce President Randy Burgess' thoughts on voter education.
Anacortes voters next month will venture into a shifting electoral landscape when they begin receiving envelopes stuffed full of party-marked ballots for the state primary election.

Election packets scheduled for mailing to absentee voters by Aug. 27 will include three separate party ballots, state and county election officials said.

Voters here and across the state will have to a single party ballot on which to cast votes, discarding the other two ballots, the officials said. Voters who submit more than one ballot will see all their votes thrown out, they said.

"We expect there's going to be some anger and some confusion," Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed said in Anacortes on Thursday, during an appearance at the monthly Chamber of Commerce president's luncheon.

"I'm telling people to look at the ballots even more closely than you have in the past and don't try to buck the system. That doesn't do anything but lose your vote," Reed said.

The new balloting system — which also will affect the minority of Anacortes voters who will cast ballots at polling sites on the Sept. 14 primary election day — are only the first wave of voting changes, Reed and county officials said.

Possible changes include elimination of in-person voting at some or all of the remaining Anacortes polling stations, installation of touch-screen electronic machines and even another complete overhaul of the state's primary ballot system.
 
 The new ballot system grows from court rulings striking down Washington's 1935-vintage blanket primary, in which voters could vote for primary candidates regardless of party affiliation. The state Legislature this year voted to replace the blanket system with a so-called "top two" primary in which the two leading vote getters for each office in the primary went on to the general election.

However, Gov. Gary Locke vetoed that measure, leaving a fallback plan legislators adopted in which voters must vote for only candidates of one party but do not have to disclose their party preference.

In Skagit County, absentee voters will receive three ballots in the mail, one each with candidates for the Democrat, Libertarian or Republican parties. Each ballot also will include a complete slate judges and other nonpartisan races on the back, said Erica Kuvischta, with the county auditor's elections department.

Voters should complete the ballot of their choice and return it, disposing of the other two, she said.

Those who vote at polling places also will receive the three ballots after they sign in. Voters will be asked to mark one of the ballots in the voting booth then place it in a protective sleeve before they leave the booth, she said.
 The voted ballot will go into the ballot box and the other two into controlled recepticals, she said.

"The ballot they chose will be their business and they'll not be asked about which party it was," she said.

Reed told chamber members it remains to be seen whether the new system will last beyond the 2004 elections.

The state Grange has submitted an initiative petition that would install the top-two primary system in Washington. Reed says the petition appears to have enough signatures to qualify for a public vote this year.

In answer to a question, Reed said he generally supports efforts to require absentee ballot be received by election day in order to be counted. Under current rules, mailed ballots only have to be postmarked by election day in order to qualify.

Reed said the current system can lead to substantial delays in election results, particularly in areas where absentee voting is high. Skagit County Auditor Norma Hickock-Brummett said about 56 percent of county voters are on the permanent mail-ballot list.

By 2006, Washington counties will have to provide touch-screen electronic voting machines or other technology that permits blind voters and others with disabilities to vote in secret.

Reed on Friday said policies he issued last week will ensure the accuracy and reliability of electronic systems by requiring a voter-verified paper audit trail, more frequent testing of voting equipment, and intensive poll-worker training.

"Washington state has never had an election debacle like the Florida mess that paralyzed this nation in 2000 because of our investment in people," he said.

Kuvischta said Skagit County officials have not decided how they will meet the federal requirement for disabled voting.

In the next month, the county auditor will survey non-absentee voters on the option of eliminating on-site voting across the county. All voters would receive ballots by mail with the option of returning them by mail or ping them off on election day at a limited number of collection stations, she said.

Fidalgo and Guemes Island voters currently have six full-service polling places, four in Anacortes, one on south Fidalgo and one on Guemes.

The auditor will eliminate the Guemes station in time for the September primary. All island voters will receive their ballots by mail from now on, with a -off station open on election day at the Guemes Island Community Hall, 5093 Guemes Island Road.

The county may conclude enough interest remains in traditional polling place voting to warrant purchase of new electronic voting equipment, Kuvischta said. If so, the auditor's office hopes to have an equipment proposal ready for county commission by spring 2005 and will have the new equipment in place by the 2005 elections, she said.