Counties' switch to mail-voting could hasten under bill that passed Senate

03/04/2005

By RACHEL LA CORTE  / Associated Press

Counties will have an easier time switching to mail-only voting under a bill that passed the Senate Friday, after vigorous debate from opponents who said it will take away people's right to vote at the polls and decrease the security of votes.

The measure passed 32-16 and now heads to the House.

While the bill doesn't require the entire state to vote by mail, as Oregon chose to do in 1998, it may hasten the process by giving counties the option of eliminating poll sites. That provision led some to argue that voters will have fewer choices.

"Right now we do have choice. We have the choice to vote absentee," said Sen. Pam Roach, R-Sumner, who argued that most, if not all, counties will want to make the switch to save money. "When this bill passes, the 20 percent of our citizens, or more, who vote at the polls will not have a choice."

The legislation says each county council or board of commissioners would make the decision. Currently, a county can make the switch only if it has no precincts of more than 200 people. Ferry, Okanogan, Clallam and Skamania counties already have all-mail voting and Whatcom and Mason counties are making the switch. Other counties have indicated they want to study mail-only ballots.

Proponents say that in a state where about 70 percent of voters already vote by mail, it doesn't make sense for counties to spend money to rent poll sites, pay poll workers or worry about hundreds of voting machines.

"It's an absolute waste of money to open the polls for 10 percent of voters," said Sen. Dave Schmidt, R-Mill Creek.

But some lawmakers said that proving voter legitimacy is harder with absentee ballots.

Sen. James Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, said "it comes down to deciding whether we're going to have accurate elections or have fast-food easy elections."

"I think in a few years I'm going to be saying I told you so when we have some massive fraud because we don't know who's voting in all those mail-in ballots," he said.

The bill was one of several introduced after the governor's race that saw Democrat Christine Gregoire win by 129 votes after a hand recount of nearly 2.9 million ballots.

Supporters of Republican opponent Dino Rossi have gone to court seeking to void the results, alleging widespread problems and voting irregularities, including illegal votes by felons and dead people.

Republicans plan to introduce several amendments to election bills that have passed out of the Democrat-controlled committees. One amendment introduced by Roach on Friday was successful in delaying a vote on a bill that would move the current mid-September primary date back four weeks to August. Roach wants the primary moved back only two weeks.

That bill's sponsor, Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, said he was willing to consider the amendment and acknowledged that lawmakers in both parties haven't been able to agree on how far to move back the date. Kastama said the bill is crucial to allow officials more time to handle any recounts and prepare for the general election, including sending ballots to military and overseas voters. Secretary of State Sam Reed has said that election officials need at least an extra month.

On a vote of 38-10, the Senate passed a bill that requires the secretary of state to prepare a manual of election laws and rules. A measure that would require voting devices to produce paper records also passed on a 48-0 vote. Both now head to the House.

The primary bill, as well as four other election reform measures, could go to the floor as early as Monday.

A statewide election reform task force released its findings Thursday. Most of the 15 suggestions have already been drafted into the more than dozen bills that have been introduced in the House and the Senate on the issue.

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The mail voting bill is Senate Bill 5744, the paper trail bill is Senate Bill 5395 and the election law manual bill is Senate Bill 5564.