Sound Politics: Mail Ballot Horror Show(XII): Ballots keep getting forwarded to former residents who are no longer eligible to vote

September 11, 2006

Mail Ballot Horror Show(XII): Ballots keep getting forwarded to former residents who are no longer eligible to vote

Portland resident Amy Jenniges of The Stranger, shares this mail ballot horror story

despite moving out of King County last November, and registering to vote in Multnomah County this past spring ... I got my King County ballot in the mail today, forwarded from Seattle.
I wondered if I'd screwed up--maybe I was supposed to tell King County to cancel my registration?

Nope: According to King County Elections' site, if I move out of state, I must "re-register to vote in your new state. Once registered there, that state will notify King County to cancel your old registration."

Not only did I re-register in another state six months ago, but I voted in the primary election here, back in May. So which county screwed up? Did Multnomah County fail to notify King County, or did King County not bother to clean up the voter rolls?

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 11, 2006 04:26 PM | Email This

Comments

1. But don't worry, King County will catch any ballots like this one and reject them before certifying the results: Oh Wait.

Posted by: Jeff B. on September 11, 2006 04:58 PM

2. It seems odd that King County would count on each of the 3000+ counties to know how to notify King County. Either each county must ask where you moved from AND know how to notify every other county, or there must be a national system for notification. If either of those worked even most of the time, I'd be impressed.

Otherwise, the KC website is wrong -- obviously this voter was just following instructions.

Posted by: Bruce on September 11, 2006 05:03 PM

3. The more reasonable solution, Bruce, is that King County should not allow ballots to be forwarded. State law gives the county the option whether to forward or not. King County chooses to forward. The voter should be responsible to notify the elections office when he/she moves, to ensure that the voter only votes in a jurisdiction in which he/she is entitled to vote.

Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on September 11, 2006 05:08 PM

4. I know a pair of libs that are moving back East end of Sept. Will see if they cast WA November votes.

Posted by: MB on September 11, 2006 05:11 PM

5. Stefan, why do they forward? Are there scenarios under which a voter would legitimately want their ballot forwarded?

Posted by: Bruce on September 11, 2006 05:18 PM

6. 1--we are working on the issue and have formed a blue-ribbon committee and hired a consultant to study it;
2--we need to bump up the local property tax add-on option rate to fund better service;
3--it's for the children
4--you did not properly separate your recyclables from your trash in Seattle; you are now subject to a fine and/or suspension of garbage service;

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 11, 2006 05:27 PM

7. Jimmie- It sounds like you have the beginnings of a great "RONGASIMS" list going there!

Posted by: Smokie on September 11, 2006 05:36 PM

8. Bruce: "Are there scenarios under which a voter would legitimately want their ballot forwarded?"

Yes, such as when the voter is temporarily away from their residence. And the voter can ask the elections office to mail their ballot to their temporary mailing address.

Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on September 11, 2006 05:40 PM

9. My Dad passed away early in 2004. Not surprisingly, in the fall of that year here came his absentee ballot. Dad was a notable curmudgeon, a fellow who believed that we "deserved" the 9/11 bombings. He had voted for Ralph Nader in 2000.

My wife and I looked at his ballot. Almost at the same time we said, "lets make him vote for Bush!"

We shredded the ballot.

Posted by: Bill Cruchon on September 11, 2006 05:41 PM

10. Bruce#5

Here is a scenario for a forwarded ballot. Soldier deployed overseas. Even the Military advised us to contact our respective auditor's office to give them our temp address while deployed.

Posted by: TrueSoldier on September 11, 2006 06:49 PM

11. I am not sure what you mean by "forwarded" here. A ballot mailed (directly) to one's temporary address is not "forwarded". A ballot mailed (addressed) to the old registered address and sent by the post office to the new address (because of a forwarding order) is "forwarded". Ballots shoudl not be forwarded.

Posted by: krm on September 11, 2006 07:10 PM

12. krm is right. Ballots should not be forward....for one simple reason. If they are being forward out of even a precindt in Seattle to another precindt in Seattle BECAUSE THE KLOWN MOVED AND NO LONGER LIVES IN THE PRECINDT, THE KLOWN may be voting on issues like Precindt Officers that no longer represent them.

I had no idea King County was forwarding ballots!
It's an outrageous policy. Do they even explain to the KLOWNS that they must vote in the Precindt where they reside???????

Posted by: Mr. Cynical on September 11, 2006 07:21 PM

13. Oh...my....goodness! It's worse than we thought!

Amy Jenniges MUST contact TV stations here and get this pubbed much harder. This is an emergency!

Posted by: Michele on September 11, 2006 08:50 PM

14. Wait....when should we have received them? Because I have not. That's just great. I wonder who's voting for me. What a joke!!!!

Posted by: Dengle on September 11, 2006 09:31 PM

15. did the re-design of the voting ballot come from the "1% for art" involuntary assessment we all get banged for? i doubt it; anybody using that new Seattle waterfront art park address for a voting residence yet?

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 11, 2006 09:51 PM

16. I agree with Stefan at 3--you want to vote it's YOUR responsibility to notify of address or other changes;

the same people who don't notify for voting will always do it for mail, water bills and especially to get security deposits or rebates back; so why not the voting? not important enough? laziness or something more, i say...

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 11, 2006 10:03 PM

17. Mom forgot we'd moved or something, and forwarded my brother's ballot. We both live out of state, and have so since Nwe Years. I haven't gotten mine yet, so either King Ron can't be bothered to mail them all on the same day, or maybe they checked the RNC volunteer lists, saw that my name was on there, and made sure to cherry-pick off the names that they had stacked in their "moved" box. Just musing...

Posted by: mogura on September 11, 2006 10:52 PM

18. What a joke this King County elections office has become. I have friends who moved to another country this year, for good. I am going to watch to see if they get ballots and vote.

I would love to get details on how many absentee ballots are sent out of state and out of country each year. What % of the total mailing.

This would be one heck of a telling study!

Posted by: GS on September 11, 2006 11:16 PM

19. how about a contest--the winner of the longest distance forwarded ballot wins--

will it be a serviceperson? an illegal alien? a phantom voter? a decedent (could be either 'up' or 'down' for distance) wait--no fair counting any now-demoted Pluto planet addresses;

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 11, 2006 11:22 PM

20. """"friends who moved to another country this year, for good. I am going to watch to see if they get ballots and vote.""""
"""""(5) "overseas voter" means --
(A) an absent uniformed services voter who, by reason of active
duty or service is absent from the United States on the date of the
election involved;
(B) a person who resides outside the United States and is qualified
to vote in the last place in which the person was domiciled before
leaving the United States; or
(C) a person who resides outside the United States and (but for
such residence) would be qualified to vote in the last place in which the
person was domiciled before leaving the United States;""""""""
FROM
http://www.fvap.gov/laws/uocavalaw.txt

Posted by: pagar on September 12, 2006 12:27 PM

21. This is potentially a HUGE issue. HUGE!
Here is the bottom-line question:
Does King County receive any information from the Post Office regarding forwarded ballots?
This information is readily available.
Other County's ask for it and it aids them in keeping their Voter Registration Database cleaned up.
First, I also belief it is ridiculous that ballots are forwarded.
But if they are forwarded by the Post Office AND King County is not requesting any readily available notice from the Post Office about the forwarding, that is SCANDALOUS!!
And if they do get this information from the Post Office, what precisely are they doing with it???
Remember, King County's motive is to get as many ballots counted as possible being a heavily Democrat-leaning County. They could care less where the voter is voting from. Right?

Posted by: dude on September 12, 2006 02:07 PM

22. I used to live in Michigan, where ballots are not forwarded. (The envelope says Do Not Forward.) You can get forwarding addresses from the PO but it costs money (something like 50 cents each) and elections offices are not going to pay for that. We used to regularly get a handful to several dozen per precinct mailed out of state, esp in fall elections when snowbirds were wintering in FL or AZ. Even a small but dedicated contingent of retirees who had returned to San Marino. MI allows anyone over 60 to sign up as a "permanent absentee" which gets them an automatic app for an absentee ballot every time, hence our absentees have a high median age.

Posted by: terry on September 12, 2006 04:45 PM

23. p.s. MI absentees are known to skew Republican, since some cities and townships use Absent Voter Counting Boards (AVCB) to tabulate absentee ballots separately from "live" ballots cast at the polls.

Posted by: terry on September 12, 2006 04:51 PM

24. I would like to relate my personal experience, as I am concerned that this is standard practice in King County. We moved from Orange County, California, to King County at the beginning of December 2005. I promptly visited the local DOL and obtained a new WA driver's license. In the course of doing so, I was asked if I would like to register to vote. Of course I would. I'm quite familiar with the Orange County voter reg form from my activist days with the GOP there. The OC form asked the new registrant to identify where they were previously registered to vote. This data is then used by the Registrar to notify the appropriate state/county that the old registration should be invalidated. The King County registration form DID NOT EVEN ASK FOR THIS INFORMATION!!! I bet if I check, my OC registration is still in force. Is this standard operating practice here? And if so, for how long?

Posted by: Ex-OC'er on September 13, 2006 10:21 AM

25. OC'er-welcome--and your phrase "concerned" is an understatement--stick around--you'll be amazed;

you never mentioned which version you used of the 8+ languages on the KC form; also, your old registration line of questioning is biased, intolerant, right-winged and politically charged; please stop; this is a county of tolerance ad inclusion; I would advise putting your efforts into more productive and inclusive tasks like helping illegal aliens to vote or hosting your own Tent City football tailgater party--how big is your yard?

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 13, 2006 11:41 AM