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Ericksen supports amendments
to provide true election reforms
Rep. Doug Ericksen,
R-Ferndale, supported several amendments that would have brought
meaningful, common-sense election reforms to two pieces of legislation.
House Democrats killed most of those amendments while passing two
watered-down election reform bills that Ericksen believes fail to
adequately address Washington’s serious election problems.
Senate Bills 5499 and 5743
passed the Washington State House of Representatives early Friday
morning after hours of floor debates late Thursday night.
Ericksen feels many
important views of voters statewide on election reforms have been
ignored.
“The governor created a task force that went statewide asking citizens
about their views on elections and some of the most meaningful ideas
generated have been ignored. This is unfortunate,” said Ericksen. “These
bills simply aren’t enough and we owe voters more. In the wake of the
latest governor’s election, it’s important we restore the public’s trust
in elections.”
Democrats in the House
State Government Operations and Accountability Committee stripped many
meaningful provisions from the Senate election reform bills prior to
their arrival to the House floor, much to the chagrin of House
Republicans.
“Our latest governor’s election shed light on some serious flaws in our
election system. It energized the public and offered legislators an
opportunity to come to Olympia with some great ideas for election
reform,” said Ericksen. “Unfortunately, many ideas generated from voters
have been ignored and it’s hard to understand why they can’t move
forward.”
Ericksen offered an
amendment to Senate Bill 5499 that would have made it the express intent
of the Legislature to protect voting rights of U.S citizens who are
properly registered and prevent non-U.S. citizens from casting illegal
votes that denigrate the rights of legal voters. The amendment failed.
“I’ve talked to
constituents from the 42nd District and they’ve consistently told me
they support simple reforms such as requiring photo ID when voting at
the polls and that every vote should have a verifiable voter, to name a
few,” said Ericksen. “There was not one House Republican amendment
offered that would act as a barrier in any way to a legal voter.”
Ericksen offered another
amendment to Senate Bill 5499 that would have required absentee and
provisional voters to include their date of birth or date of
registration on the outer envelope. From there, the date of birth or the
date of voter registration would have to be matched, in addition to the
signature, for the ballot to be counted. The amendment failed.
Other House Republican
amendments included:
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Restore integrity to
voter registration rolls by requiring all voters to re-register by
August 2006 to vote in Washington elections.
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Maintain integrity of
voter rolls by requiring proof of citizenship at time of
registration similar to the federal employment requirement.
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Require photo ID at
polls to prevent fraudulent voting.
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Ensure absentee and
vote-by-mail ballots are valid before being counted and identifiable
to prevent improper mixing of ballots.
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Protect the integrity
of absentee ballots by adding a second piece of ID information to
the ballot envelope, such as the voter’s registration date, in
addition to the signature match requirement.
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Stipulate that voter
conduct - not presumed voter intent - be used to determine a vote.
The ballot must be filled out according to established rules.
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Ballot augmentation
would be prohibited, and ballot duplication allowed only when needed
to restore a damaged legal ballot.
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Allow the process for
challenging the legality of a voter to be triggered by evidence that
the voter does not live at the residence on record.
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Ensure 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.
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For more information, contact:
John
Handy, Assistant Director: (360) 786-5758
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