Task force finds 'unacceptable' flaws in state election system; suggests 15 changes

By Rachel La Corte, Associated Press
March 2, 2005

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) An election reform task force created by Gov. Christine Gregoire in the wake of her razor-thin margin of victory last year found that the public?s trust in the state?s election system was damaged by imperfections and mistakes that "are clearly unacceptable."

In a 23-page report obtained by The Associated Press, the task force suggests 15 specific actions it wants to see the governor and Legislature take, including moving the primary date up and requiring voter identification at the polls. The report will be released at a news conference with Gregoire in Olympia Thursday morning and later that afternoon in Spokane.  
The task force, co-chaired by Secretary of State Sam Reed and former state Sen. Betti Sheldon of Bremerton, held five public hearings around the state with a total of more than 455 people in attendance. The task force also received nearly 700 responses to questionnaires that were distributed at the public hearings and available on the secretary of state?s Web site.

The issue of reform jumped quickly to the forefront after Gregoire, a Democrat, won the governor?s race by 129 votes after a hand recount of nearly 2.9 million ballots after the Nov. 2 election.

Supporters of Republican opponent Dino Rossi ? who led after the first two tallies of the vote ? have gone to court seeking to void the results, alleging widespread problems and voting irregularities. Calls for a revote came after accusations were made of illegal votes by felons and dead people, and provisional ballots that were illegally tallied without being properly checked. A judge has ruled the case can move forward, but that he would not order a revote.

Reed said Wednesday he wanted voters to know that "the state of Washington is seriously and thoughtfully dealing with those problems."

"No way are we going to excuse them away or whitewash the situation," he said. "There were very serious problems. Illegal votes are unacceptable."

The report comes as the Senate gets ready to vote on several election reform bills and several bills are awaiting action in the House.

The flip-flopping results over a nearly eight-week period following the election "created the perception that something was amiss in the system, especially in King County," the report found. "It also created individual and collective emotional swings as the leader changed from day to day, hour to hour."

The task force suggests that all counties certify their results on the same day, which would require larger counties to start earlier, but would lessen the likelihood of a dramatic change in results that could take place if counties were late in counting and certifying their results.

King County, the largest county in the state that accounts for about a third of the voters, did not certify its results until Dec. 23, after counting newly discovered ballots. Reed certified the election on Dec. 30.

King County was singled out in the report as needing to improve its election system. The report said that residents across the state expressed concern about the county?s election system.

"Regardless of whether the concerns are real or perceived, the elected and appointed officials in King County must immediately make it a top priority to establish and fund an elections system that meets the standards expected by the citizens across Washington State," the report read.

Reed cited a lack of proper work space and concerns over the accountability of some of the staff in reporting mistakes and errors.

"We didn?t find the level of problems that we found in any other counties that we did in King County," he said.
King County elections officials had not yet seen the report Wednesday and did not have an immediate response.
Shortly after taking office, Gregoire created the task force in order to try and address the deep division among voters in the state.

Gregoire, who was in Washington, D.C. at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, said in a prepared statement that the recommendations "are timely and have great merit."

"I will be working with the task force co-chairs and the Legislature to move toward their implementation," she wrote.
Of the suggestions that were presented in the report, Reed said bills have been introduced addressing all of them, either in the House or Senate.

A package of bills expected to go to the Senate floor as early as Thursday would hold the primary a month earlier so counties would have more time to get out general election ballots. It would also impose statewide standards for handling ballots, require first-time voters to produce identification at the polls, require regular audits of county election departments, and require a paper trail for touch-screen voting machines like those used in Snohomish and Yakima counties.

Another Senate bill would make it easier for counties to opt for conducting their elections entirely by mail, though the task force said that given public concern about potential abuse of absentee ballots, they think retaining the local option of voting by mail should remain, but with stronger warnings about voter fraud. About 70 percent of the state?s voters already vote by absentee.

The task also recommended color-coding provisional ballots, mandatory audits of local election systems by the secretary of state?s office and improving voter registration records.