Elections officials get ready for new rules

The Washington State Legislature passed 11 election reform bills during the 2005 session, and several of the new laws will have their first run in the upcoming election.

There are 3.4 million registered voters in the state, and this year many will be voting entirely by mail. In last November’s election, there were only four such counties. For the upcoming primary, there will be 28 counties voting only by mail, including Kitsap.

According to Kitsap County Elections Manager Delores Gilmore, the new regulations serve as a way to both streamline the process and restore voter confidence after the 2004 governor’s race.

“Many of the new regulations have been put in place to tighten the process and make the laws more clear,” Gilmore said.

Beginning in the Sept. 20 primary election:

n “Enhancement” of original ballots will be outlawed. If voters mark their ballots incorrectly, election workers aren’t allowed to fix the ballot. A copy of the original ballot will be enhanced, assuming the voter intent can be determined, and the original saved in case of a recount.

Gilmore said this new regulation won’t have a large affect on her office’s procedures.

“Every election that we go into we process the ballots as if there is going to be a recount,” Gilmore said.

n If a voter fills out the ballot correctly, but marks one race incorrectly, the vote in that race won’t count.

n Provisional and absentee ballots have to look different. In most cases, provisional and absentee ballots will be different colors. This should solve the recount problem where these ballots were mixed in with the regular ballots and officials couldn’t distinguish them.

n All mailed-in ballots must be kept in a secure location before opening.

n Fixing a signature during a recount is prohibited. If officials determine the signature on the ballot doesn’t match the one on file, the voter is notified before the election is certified so he can confirm the signature is his. In order for the ballot to be counted, the voter must fix the missing or mismatched signature either in person or by mail by the day before certification.

“The biggest change is in the ballot reconciliation process,” Gilmore acknowledged.

Gilmore said that instead of just sending out a notice to the voter, a phone call is also required.

• The threshold for an automatic manual recount for a statewide election increases from 150 votes to 1,000 votes.

• All counties with a population over 75,000 must canvass ballots daily, including Saturdays. And all county recounts must be certified on the same day for races that cross county lines.

• Other changes require that felons be given information when they are released from custody about how to have their voting rights restored.

“In addition, there’s a huge portion of (reforms) that since we went to an all-mail election we won’t have to deal with,” Gilmore said.

For counties continuing to set up polling places, those who vote there must show identification, either a driver’s license, a voter registration card or a utility bill that shows their address.

If they don’t have ID, the ballot will considered to be a provisional one and elections workers will have to match signatures before it is counted.

While many of the changes were ordered by the Legislature, some are required under the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA), passed after the close 2000 presidential election.

Beginning Monday, the state began an education campaign to inform Washington voters of these changes.

Secretary of State Sam Reed said military and overseas absentee ballots have been mailed for the Sept. 20th election and all the rest of the absentee ballots will be mailed Sept. 2.

Gilmore has just one request for Kitsap County voters next month —

“Just don’t forget to sign (the ballot),” Gilmore said. “I think that’s the biggest thing. Every election we just have hundreds of voters that forget to sign that outer envelope.”

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