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Election bills miss the mark
The Democrat majority in
the Washington State House of Representatives voted to make only minor
changes in the state’s election system today. State representatives from
the 5th District expressed concerns that problems associated with last
November’s election are not being addressed.
“Our governor’s election
was obviously not the ‘model to the rest of the nation’ that Governor
Gregoire says it was. Quite frankly, it was a debacle,” said
Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City. “While the issues specific to this race will be
decided in the courts, the Legislature has an obligation and duty to
learn from what has happened and make changes where necessary.
Unfortunately, we’ve yet to enact any meaningful election reforms.”
The House approved three election bills – House Bill 1749, which calls
on the secretary of state to review election policies and procedures
once every three years and instructs counties to take corrective action
for problems uncovered; and House Bill 2027, which would move the
primary election date from the third Tuesday in September to the third
Tuesday in August.
Anderson and Rodne voted
“yes” on the measures, calling them small, incremental steps.
“House Bill 2027 would let counties prepare and mail ballots out to
voters sooner. This is particularly important for our military voters
across seas,” said Rodne, who also serves as a Major in the U.S. Marine
Corps Reserve.
“We need to make sure
military ballots are accepted all the way up to election certification.
The men and women defending our country overseas need to know their
votes are being counted – and counted correctly.”
The third measure, House
Bill 1754, which passed on a 58-38 vote, would make it easier for
counties to convert to all mail-in-ballot elections. Anderson and Rodne
voted “no” on this bill because they have concerns with the integrity of
all-mail elections and the loss of traditional polling places as civic
gathering points.
“Our package of election
reforms is not partisan – it benefits everyone,” said Anderson. “We
simply want to restore integrity in elections so the public can have
confidence in the results.”
House Republicans have
introduced comprehensive election reforms that would clean up voter
registration rolls over the next two years, create standardized
procedures for handling provisional ballots that would prevent them from
being counted and mixed in with other ballots until they are validated,
and ensure every vote has a voter by requiring counties to reconcile the
number of voters with the number of ballots cast. The Democrats have
refused to hear these proposals.
“We owe it to the citizens
of this state to do more. If we don’t, we set ourselves up for further
problems down the road,” said Rodne. “There’s still time, but we’re not
getting any signals from the majority party that something meaningful
will be done.”
The 2005 legislative
session began on January 10 and is scheduled to run 105 days.
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For more information, contact:
Bobbi Cussins, Public
Information Officer - (360) 786-7252
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