Senate thins election proposals
Standard procedures get nods; no early deadline, legislators say

BRAD SHANNON THE OLYMPIAN   17 January 2005

Lawmakers began the laborious process Monday of deciding what election-law changes to enact to rebuild public trust in the voting system. Secretary of State Sam Reed's call for changes including an earlier date for the state's traditional September primary got a mixed response from a Senate committee. The parts of his proposals that seek to standardize procedures for counting ballots and deciding what a voter's intent was were well received.

But Reed's proposal to require that absentee voters return ballots by Election Day won't get out of the Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee, said Sen. Jim Kastama, the Puyallup Democrat who chairs the committee.

Election errors and sloppiness have come to light during recounts of the whisker-close governor's race, won by Democrat Christine Gregoire by 129 votes and followed by Republican Dino Rossi's formal court challenge of the results. The hot political issues, including a move to recall Reed for his handling of the race, have propelled election reform to the top of many lawmakers' agendas.

"To tell you the truth, I think he's done a decent job," Kastama said after Monday's testimony by Reed and a handful of county elections officers, including Auditor Kim Wyman of Thurston County and Dean Logan of King County.

But neither Reed nor lawmakers could say that any proposals could be enacted by lawmakers in time to make significant changes in the event Rossi wins a "revote" of the race. Reed said most changes might be handled quickly by administrative action, such as standardizing the way certain ballots are handled.

Other important changes are already in the works even without legislative action. They include a centralized statewide database of registered voters that should be operating by 2006, according to Reed and several county election officers, including Wyman, the Thurston County auditor.

Kastama said most action on the bills won't occur until the middle of the session, although he does hope to move several out of his committee. He also intends to introduce several bills next week, and Republicans on his Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee have plans for close to 20 more.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kathy Haigh, the Shelton Democrat who chairs the House State Government Committee, said she plans hearings Friday morning to take up similar issues. Haigh said she expects the Senate will write most of the bills for this year's election changes.

Reed's proposals include standardizing vote-counting procedures, standardizing how signature disputes over provisional ballots are resolved and requiring the state to pay for its share of election costs in even-numbered years. He also wants an earlier primary moving it from mid-September to June, but Kastama favors a mid-August date.

Sen. Pam Roach of King County, ranking Republican on Kastama's committee, says an early September primary would be better. Roach said she opposes a move to June, because it clashes with the freeze on lawmakers' fund raising during legislative sessions and for 30 days before or after a session.

Just as the two clashed last week in another hearing, Roach and Kastama had sharp words for each other several times in the hearing, and the Democrat slammed his gavel at least twice to silence her questions.

In one testy exchange with Kastama, Roach was boring in on errors by King County elections officials that led to the mistaken rejection of 735 ballots for lack of signatures. Officials admitted weeks later they had failed to check the signatures against paper records.

That glitch is still under investigation in King County, according to Logan's staff.

Roach later angered Kastama when she demanded a second time to know how many prosecutions were actually carried out against voters who cast ballots improperly, such as felons.

"I'd like to know how many we have, how many were referred to prosecutors, and what was the outcome," Roach said.

Kastama replied sharply that Logan, when asked the first time, had lacked specifics.

"Next question ..."