Governor to get bill making mail-in balloting easier for counties

04/20/2005

By RACHEL LA CORTE? / Associated Press

A bill that would make it easier for counties to switch to all mail-in voting headed to the governor on Wednesday, after winning approval from the House and Senate.

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.

Gov. Christine Gregoire has said she will sign the measure.

Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton, chair of the House State Government, Operations & Accountability Committee, said representatives chose to concur with Senate amendments to make the switch voluntary because they didn't want to risk having the bill die. The House had first wanted to make the change mandatory by 2008, then suggested 2012.

"It's much more important we have the option there for the counties," she said. "The date was important, we fought for it the whole time, but it's not worth losing the whole bill."

The House passed the amended version 83-13 Wednesday. The Senate passed the bill last week 28-20.

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.

Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, said his no vote was a "protest vote" against mail-in balloting in general, which he says has become too easy and opens the door for fraud.

"I feel ultimately that mail-in ballots should be reserved for those with a real conflict on voting day," he said. "I don't think it's a good policy, period. What we've done now is open up a door that we can't shut."

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 her 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.

Two bills that are the crux of an election reform package were still being negotiated by the House and Senate.

Under a version approved by the House, one of the bills allows people to identify themselves as registered voters by showing a photo ID, utility bills, bank statements or paychecks, or verbally giving their information, including a unique number that would be assigned by the secretary of state.

Republicans want to see photo ID only, and Senate Democrats have insisted on either photo ID or a voter registration card.

Haigh said that the House has decided to concur with the Senate on that also, though representatives were waiting on some final negotiations.

"We're having to bend quite a bit because (the Senate's) margin is so tight," she said. "It's more important that we do get some of these things done than we have it totally our way."

Democrats hold a firm 55-43 advantage in the House, but only a 26-23 margin in the Senate. And with two Democrats ? Tim Sheldon of Potlatch and Jim Hargrove of Hoquiam ? who have been known to switch sides on more than one occasion, Democrats can never assume they have the 25 votes to get anything through.

The two bills would also streamline voter databases, allowing the secretary of state to screen for felons, those who have declined to serve on juries because they are not U.S. citizens, or have been found legally incompetent to vote. The bills also require mail and absentee ballots to be visually distinguishable from other ballots, and make voting more than once a felony.

Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup and the main architect of the Senate's election reform plan, still held out slim hope for resurrecting a bill to move the primary election to August from September. County auditors say that is necessary to give them more time to get absentee ballots to military and overseas voters and to get ready for the general election.

That bill never came up for a vote and missed a cutoff deadline on Friday when Republicans locked up their vote because they weren't happy with the other election bills.

Republicans had extra leverage on the proposal to change the primary date, because unlike other election reform bills, it required a two-thirds vote because it amends a 2004 primary initiative that voters passed.

Other election reform bills awaiting the governor's signature include: a bill requiring a paper trail for all electronic voting machines; a bill requiring the secretary of state to review county election procedures every three years and to provide a manual of election laws and rules to all counties; and a bill that requires out-of-state, overseas and military service voters to be told of rights and procedures. Gregoire is expected to sign all of them.

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The omnibus election reform bill is Senate Bill 5499, the voter registration record-keeping bill is Senate Bill 5743, the paper trail bill is Senate Bill 5395, the all-mail voting bill is House Bill 1754, the out-of-state voters' information bill is Senate Bill 5565 and the election law manual bill is Senate Bill 5564. The county review bill is House Bill 1749.

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