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Schindler, Crouse say bills
passed by House
not meaningful election reform
Spokane-area Republicans
Reps. Lynn Schindler and
Larry Crouse voted today for what they called
real and meaningful election reform, and against legislation they said
did not include the express wishes of citizens who had spoken up about
needed changes to Washington’s election system.
“The problems in our
recent election have shown us clearly that we must make specific fixes
to our election system if we are going to restore citizens’ faith in our
electoral process,” Schindler, R-Spokane Valley, said today. “The
governor created a task force that went around the state asking people
about ideas for change, and we’ve heard from countless other citizens
about this issue. Unfortunately, most of the ideas people offered were
not in the bills we voted on today. That’s why several of my House
Republican colleagues and I introduced amendments: to give people
exactly what they said they want from the Legislature this year.”
Crouse agreed.
“These bills simply don’t
do enough and we owe the public more. We must restore the public’s
confidence in our elections. Some common sense election reforms have
been ignored and it’s hard to understand why there are some people who
do not want them to move forward,” said Crouse, R-Spokane Valley. “It’s
important we address our election shortcomings now – not later. If not,
we’ll be right back here in two years with the same problems and
answering to constituents why we didn’t do more the first time around.”
The Senate bills that House members voted on today originally included
some of the reforms citizens asked for – including a requirement to show
photo ID at the polls. However, Democrats stripped those reforms out
when the bills were heard in the House State Government Committee.
Schindler, a member of the
State Government Committee, introduced an amendment to House Bill 5499
that would have required counties to reconcile the number of votes with
the number of ballots cast. If the discrepancy exceeded the margin of
victory, it would have triggered an automatic revote of that race.
Majority Democrats defeated the amendment.
In addition to Schindler’s
amendment, other House Republicans introduced amendments that would
have:
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Required photo ID at
the polls;
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Made provisional,
absentee and polling place ballots look different so they aren’t
intermingled before being checked to make sure they are valid;
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Required an additional
piece of identification on absentee ballots (in addition to a
signature), such as the date the voter registered;
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Prohibited election
workers from “divining” voter intent and enhancing ballots; and
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Ensured every vote has
a voter, requiring counties to reconcile the number of voters with
the number of ballots cast, and triggering an automatic revote when
discrepancies exceed the margin of victory.
Both lawmakers expressed
their disappointment that it appears legislators will leave Olympia
without enacting real election reform this year.
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For more information, contact:
Brendon Wold, Public
Information Officer: (360) 786-7698
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