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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
Rep. Jay 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:
John
Handy, Assistant Director: (360) 786-5758
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