By John Stark
Washington state residents had to wait three whole days after the Nov. 6 general election to find out for sure who their next governor will be, and a lot of people seem to find that kind of delay unacceptable.
I don’t know about you, but I slept quite well during this long statewide nightmare. My appetite was also not affected.
But it is a fact that this state’s election procedure is untypical. Around the nation, residents of many states still expect to take time off from work to wait in line at fire stations and schoolhouses to cast ballots that can be quickly tabulated on election night.
In other states with mail-in ballots, voters are required to mail early, because ballots that don’t arrive in the mail by election day are tossed. Procrastinators are disenfranchised.
In Washington state, if you can get an election day postmark on your envelope, you’re good. Election officials check the mail bag on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and beyond in search of ballots that must be counted. When a race is close–as in this year’s contest between Democrat Jay Inslee and Republican Rob McKenna in the race for governor–the state’s residents live in a fog of uncertainty for days. Even worse, political reporters have to keep coming up with new versions of their “too close to call” story for each day’s edition.
Jason Mercier, Director of the Center for Government Reform at the Washington Policy Center, provides a roundup of election laws in other states, as well as a link to a roundup of newspaper editorials demanding reform.
“According to the National Association of Secretaries of State, the vast majority of states require mail-in ballots to actually be received by Election Day:
“In three states, absentee ballots must be returned prior to Election Day.
“In 36 states, absentee ballots must be returned by Election Day.
“In 11 states and the District of Columbia, additional time for the arrival of absentee ballots is provided after Election Day, as long as the absentee ballot is postmarked by Election Day.
“Here is a summary of when mail-in ballots are due in each state.
“Here is a summary of the editorial support for changing our election deadline.“
Thanks for the info, Mr. Mercier.
What do you think? Washington state policies seem to be designed to maximize voter turnout. Is that more or less important that instant election night gratification?
I do think that in the Presidential race, a quick determination has value. Uncertainty about which party will control our nation’s highest office can have harmful effect on financial markets, foreign policy matters, and so forth.
If Washington ever evolves into a swing state in presidential politics, our voting system has the potential to drive the entire nation insane.
But I remain to be convinced that a few days of uncertainty about a governor’s race is hurting much of anything. Maybe I’m missing something.
As of this morning, the election turnout in Whatcom County is a robust 74 percent, and election officials estimate that thousands more remain to be counted.
There are only two states in the nation that vote all by mail. WA and OR. OR requires its ballots to be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day and its voter turnout has not suffered as a result coming in higher than WA’s.
Here are the bills requested by retiring Secretary of State Sam Reed calling for WA to join OR’s election day deadline:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1185&year=2011 (Democrat sponsors)
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=5125&year=2011 (Republican Sponsors)
Should Washington make the switch to Oregon’s requirement exceptions would need to be made for military and overseas voters as occurs in other states.
As is the case with any election deadline, the key is voter education.
How would that be reform? It takes a couple extra days to determine winners? WHO CARES? They don’t take office until January, the ballot measures can’t take effect until December, so you have a full month without harming anything anyway.
Thanks for adding to the info, Jason. I was going to email you and alert you to the blog post, but it looks like you are keeping tabs on us.
Thanks John. The wonders of RSS feeds.
On the Oregon turnout point, still a chance for WA to catch but OR hit 81% this election: http://oregonvotes.org/doc/history/nov62012/Ballot_Return_Wksht_G12.pdf
We should always strive to ensure that everyone who is eligible gets to vote. Efforts by certain officials in other states to limit voting days and hours are completely inappropriate, and clearly are efforts to limit access to the polls.
That said, I do believe we have to change the rules in Washington State to have election day be the day ballots must be received, not just postmarked. If that means allowing more time for ballot return on the front end, so be it.
By your own argument, John, if we were a swing state, you’d be open to this. Why wait until we are (if ever) a swing state? Many people in this state invest time and money into these races, and I think its completely appropriate for them to want results at roughly the same pace as the other 49 States and the District of Columbia.
And we have many rules to vote now. We can’t register on the day of the election, but prior to the election. We have to sign the envelope the ballot goes in, or the vote won’t be counted. These rules may limit the opportunity to vote for procrastinators and those who have difficultly following the rules, yet we impose them none-the-less.
Unfortunately, I agree with some of the editorials that there is not the political will to take this step, but I do believe if needs to be done.
I don’t think we should change the law just to relieve the suspense for those who invest time and money in these races. But you make a good point. We have to draw the line somewhere. Whatever deadline is set, some people will miss it. Some time today, some dude is going to find his ballot in a stack of junk mail he’s throwing out, and he’s going to go, “Uh oh…”
How would a voter know when it was still safe to drop their ballot in the mail? I don’t know how long a piece of mail takes to be delivered. And if my ballot doesn’t get there by election day, because the Post Office budget has been cut back and they are slower with delivery, what would be the recourse for my disenfranchisement? I think this proposed change would be a problem mainly for rural voters who rely on the mail to save them a trip to town.
And even if we only counted ballots that had arrived by election day, it would still take a couple days to process the ballot. Every ballot dropped off at a drop box on Election Day would not be counted until Wednesday or Thursday anyway. Unless you want to spend a lot more money on equipment and personnel, and I don’t see that happening any time soon.
Seems that one of the main arguments Mr. Mercier is making is that we are out of step with other states on this issue. Well, I am glad we are out of step with other states who are putting up barriers to vote, forcing people to stand in lines for hours on election Day, and using touch-screen voting that is hackable and with no verifiable paper trail. Washington just passed gay marriage and legalized marijuana. Since when do we care what other states do?
As someone who has invested my time and money into the outcome of an election, please don’t use me as an excuse to promote this so-called reform. We have one of the best systems in the country — accurate, verifiable, secure, producing high turnout rates. Let’s not leave voters guessing when they have to cast their ballot to have it count.
This is a solution in search of a problem. By Friday everything was settled, and as close as the Gubernatorial election was it would have taken a few days no matter when the absentee ballots were due.
The only changes I’d be in favor of is bringing back the polling places.
Or at least have it as an option.
One or two per county perhaps.
King County does, I believe.
Wow, this gets complicated.
I used to like going to the polls to vote but I’ve come to prefer mailing in my ballot.
I think we should keep the deadline as it stands for one simple reason and that is because people kNow when election day is, and they’re less likely to get things messed up in their head if they have that date/number in their mind.
Also, having grown up on the east coast I can vouch that the west coast might as well be on Mars for all their concern about how we vote.
What Natalie said.
I am fine with our best in the west proceedures. Oregon should change theirs to postmark by election day. I do not think Sam Reed is looking out for the low info voter. He couldn’t sendout a primary voters guide thus supressing the vote in the State Supreme Court race. Luckily some counties mailed their own or Steven Gonzales might have lost.
I very strongly dislike mail in voting and would like to go back to voting how we used to do it.
Would you (Clayton) propose to raise taxes to cover the added costs of reinstating the polling places? I personally will second Natalie’s message above- and add that it does really seem that the post-mark deadline is the best way to make sure we know which votes make the deadline, and which do not. This is good enough for the IRS, right? I also agree with John that the “waiting in suspense” arguement is pretty bogus- that is all about communication, attitude, and expectation. If the whole nation voted this way, then there would be fewer “anomalous looking” states in that respect, and we would have far fewer problems. We would have different problems- I have read the “failure rate” is slightly higher with vote by mail (folks fill things out improperly, and there is no one there to help them)- but again some education and clear instructions should minimize the downside. Sure, I miss going to a polling place for nostalgia’s sake, but all in all we have produced a pretty good system here, which may be a good model for the rest of the nation.
Does the procedure of accepting ballots postmarked on election day produce any positive benefits? For example, what is the percentage of turn out in states with election day postmark rules, as opposed to the turn in states where ballots must be in by election day?
OK, we had a record turnout. That’s great! But, it means it will require more effort to count the ballots. Why beat ourselves and the elections people up by fussing over the additional time. Yes, some races are so close we will not know the outcome for weeks, but that would be the case anyway.
i turn in my ballot in person. i do not trust the mail with my ballot.
Natalie makes all the right arguments above.
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I turn in my ballot in person too because I want to save my stamps for Christmas cards.