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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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Elections in state are headed for change
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| Contributor | None Entered |
| Last Edited | None Entered Feb 22, 2005 02:48am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Seattle Times |
| News Date | Monday, February 21, 2005 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | In the aftermath of the closest, most chaotic governor's race in state history, Democrats are pushing a package of changes that includes moving the primary to an earlier date and shifting the state toward a system in which all votes would be cast by mail.
The bills have broad support among Democrats, who control both the House and Senate, but Republicans say they're not enough.
"We're not opposed to the stuff that's coming out. We just feel there should be a lot more," said Sen. Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, the Senate minority leader. "We want to fix the problem and not just say we passed a bill."
Usually hesitant to tinker with the election system, state lawmakers have introduced a boatload of bills this year aimed at preventing a repeat of problems that occurred in the 2004 governor's contest, which went through two recounts and spawned numerous lawsuits. It ended with Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire winning by 129 votes. Her victory is being challenged by Republicans in court.
Republicans want more dramatic changes than Democrats have proposed, such as deleting existing voter rolls and requiring everyone to re-register, perhaps with proof of citizenship. They say that would help eliminate votes cast by felons, the dead and people who don't live in Washington.
Other proposals include requiring all absentee ballots to be in by Election Day, and requiring a revote if the number of ballots cast greatly exceeds the number of voters.
For many Democrats, those ideas go too far. Purging voter rolls, for example, could disenfranchise voters, argues Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, chairman of the Senate Government Operations & Elections Committee. That was not part of a package of nine election bills passed out of his committee last week.
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