On Wednesday, Representative Hunt (22nd District-Thurston) introduced House Bill 2833, a 70-page bill that scours any mention of precinct polling places from the law. Since Pierce is the only county not vote-by-mail or moving in that direction, the bill might as well be called the "Force the Pierce County Council to Fall in Line Act."
If enacted, Pierce would have to change to vote-by-mail by March 1, 2008. King County is specifically exempted until January 2009, which still may be too short a time for them to overcome their difficulties with equipment.
Earlier this year, Peter Callaghan gave an excellent review of how Secretary Reed and the auditors got us to this point through "a combination of great patience, the perpetuation of myths and a fair amount of sleight of hand." Apparently they're past that now, and have moved to using a hammer, complete with an emergency clause.
HB 2833 is scheduled for a public hearing on January 23 at 1:30 p.m. One of my colleagues posted more info on the bill here.
Posted by Jonathan Bechtle at January 18, 2008 11:49 AM | Email ThisThey are giving PC less than two months - March 1, 2008 - to convert to 100% VBM and KC gets more than eleven more months - January 1, 2009 - (on top of all the time they used in 2007) to get it figured out.
Obviously, they don't have any more confidence in speedy results from KC than the general public.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on January 18, 2008 01:49 PMI have never voted by mail, and never will (unless required to by circumstances). I always vote in person. I do not use the mail-in ballot, ever.
All-mail balloting is an absolute scourge on democracy.
Posted by: pudge on January 18, 2008 03:29 PMYep, there's still time!
This all mail voting has become the anointed practice of the left with respect to getting a little bit of feedback from the peeps before not listening, and foisting more authoritarian schemes on us anyway.
But I have to laugh, because ultimately there will be less of the emotional victim voter that the left so highly prizes, doing any mail voting. There's simply not much to get emotional or excited about when filling out a ballot in the privacy of one's home. It's just another piece of paper on the mail stack with bills and junk mail. And for emotional and immature would-be voters, there's a pretty good chance they will forget to vote, or fail to remember the emotional programming they use to receive on the bus on the way to the polls.
No doubt there will be fraud and improperly counted ballots at the central ballot counting facilities, like there was when Bill Huennekens improperly counted provisionals in King County in 2004. But I still think that will be offset by the general apathy of all mail voting.
If change is so necessary (eg. the common argument that there is a shortage of poll workers), why not try some of the reforms implemented in other states? For example, some states use fewer polling places, but a small percentage of polling places are open for several weeks before each election day in order to allow for early voting. This helps to maximize voter turnout and largely replaces the need for absentee ballots. (Absentee ballots would still be needed, but for a much smaller number of groups, including college students, folks in the military, and US citizens living abroad.)
This reform would introduce a new set of challenges, but these challenges are minor compared with the inherent vulnerabilities with voting by mail.
Posted by: Tim B. on January 18, 2008 11:05 PMA project was done in 2006 that identified voters who had moved and forgotten to update their records.
The list of voters who needed assistance was given to Mr Reed and Mr Sims.
We need to compile another list to give to the elected officials in each county
Source documents will be
a) county voting rolls
b) USPS database
c) Phone directories
d) DMV records
e) State Dept of Licensing
For estate purposes, proof of residence is the location where you live, file your Federal Income Tax, vote, have a vehicle/boat registered et al
BTW when Mr Borders moved across the pond, he notified the SoS of his change of address.
Mr Reed failed to remove Mr Borders from the Voter Rolls in King County
Posted by: Green on January 19, 2008 04:51 AMSurely there is someone with the brains an WILL to counteract this bill of nonsense with one of sanity and common sense.
Where is Tim Eyeman... THIS would be a great people initiative!
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on January 19, 2008 11:51 AMI'm loving it.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on January 19, 2008 03:31 PMhttp://novbm.wordpress.com/why-not-vbm/
http://novbm.wordpress.com/why-not-vbm/