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39th District legislators
disappointed by
feeble attempt at election reform
Washington’s qualified voters came out on the short end of two bills
passed Thursday night by the House of Representatives, say
Reps. Dan Kristiansen and
Kirk Pearson. Senate Bill 5499 and
Senate Bill 5743 were adopted without a number of key amendments that
would have restored integrity to the state’s election system in the wake
of the disastrous November 2004 general election.
“All we want to do is protect the rights of eligible voters,” said
Kristiansen, R-Snohomish. “We want a system that requires voters to
prove they are ‘qualified electors,’ as the state constitution says,
which includes proving their identity. We want a system that makes sure
every vote corresponds to a voter. Is that so much to ask?”
“The changes we proposed would have made it virtually impossible to
repeat the elections fiasco we saw in King County. These bills, as
passed, leave the door wide open to more embarrassments,” said Pearson,
R-Monroe. “We knew from the start of the session that election reform
would be one of our most important tasks. These bills are the reforms
that have taken 95 days to come to us for a vote? Nothing in this
legislation is going to do nearly enough to inspire voter trust.”
The key election reform amendments proposed but rejected included:
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Clean up the voter
rolls by requiring all voters to re-register by August 2006.
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Require photo ID at
the polls to prevent fraudulent voting, and make it a felony to
knowingly vote illegally.
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Make all ballots –
absentee, provisional, vote-by-mail and poll-place ballots – look
different to prevent them getting mixed before they are verified as
valid.
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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 birth date, in addition to
the signature match requirement.
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Prevent ballot
enhancements by election workers who attempt to “divine” what voters
may have intended by various marks on their ballot. The amendment
was proposed by Kristiansen.
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Allow citizens to
challenging the legality of a voter by evidence that the voter does
not live at the residence on record.
“When a ballot cast by an
ineligible voter is cast, it cancels out the ballot of a qualified
voter. It disenfranchises that qualified voter just as much as if he or
she had been prevented from casting a ballot in the first place,” said
Pearson.
“These bills probably represented our last chance this session to defend
the rights of eligible voters,” Kristiansen added. “It’s disappointing
to realize the Legislature is going to fall short of the comprehensive,
real election reforms the voters expected.”
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For more information, contact:
John Sattgast, Senior
Information Officer - (360) 786-7257
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