Election Central: Mixed reception in Oly
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Election reform bills are meeting mixed success in the budget-dominated legislative session in Olympia.
Secretary of State Sam Reed’s Top 2 Primary bill has won thumbs-up from the Senate elections panel and awaits a full Senate vote. The plan, Senate Bill 5681, would eliminate now-outdated references to the unpopular old Pick-a-Party Primary that limited voters to only one party’s list of candidates, and would reflect the new voter-approved Top 2 system that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court a year ago. The bill also would create a sensible process of identifying political parties, and would update the process of electing party precinct committee officers.
A measure to allow ex-felons to apply for restoration of voting rights is moving forward in both houses with the endorsement of Reed and the state Elections Division. The bills, SB 5534 and HB 1517, forbid voting when in state custody or on probation, but allow the former inmate to apply for restoration of rights after the sentence is complete.Current law requires the ex-con also to satisfy financial obligations, such as court costs and restitution, which are hard to track and make it tough to clean the voter rolls.
Lawmakers also are giving a good reception to bills to move voter registration deadlines closer to Election Day, to clarify candidate filing laws, and to make it clear that a 30-day residency is required for folks who want to vote for president here.
Two bills sought by County Auditors and supported by Reed also are moving through the process. One would reduce from four to two the permissible springtime election dates for school levies and other local elections. The other would remove the legal requirement that auditors continue to send ballots to inactive voters.
Two other major reform bills, though, failed to pass muster this year. One would have required voters to get their ballots back to the county elections office by Election Day, rather than simply postmarked that day. This change would expedite the counting of ballots and give voters a quicker idea of who won.
The other bill would have allowed the Secretary of State to begin developing a system to allow secure Internet voting by military and overseas voters on a pilot basis.
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Secretary of State
Steve Hobbs
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