WA Elections project nets 27k new voters

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The Pew Charitable Trusts is drawing attention to a low-tech special outreach project in Washington – postcards sent out by snail mail – that resulted in 27,000 new voter registrations. The State Elections Division sent out cards to over 200,000 unregistered and apparently eligible citizens over 18 before the last election and netted more than 27k new registrations. It's the fourth year the outreach mailings have gone out, netting nearly 104,000 new registrations, said state Elections Director Lori Augino. The mailing list was made possible because of Washington’s membership in a multistate data-matching consortium called ERIC, or the Electronic Registration Information Center. ERIC is able to compare the state voter registration database with Department of Licensing data and other reliable public sources to identify Washington residents who are not registered to vote, but appear eligible. Secretary of State Kim Wyman hailed ERIC and the little postcard program that has paid big dividends:

“We are so grateful for this opportunity to reach thousands of new voters, and it’s good to get this recognition of the ERIC project and Washington’s successful use of it for both outreach and keeping our voter records clean and up-to-date."

Augino added:

“Locating and signing up new voters is a real joy for election administrators, and ERIC also helps reduce costs, returned mail, and the need for provisional ballots.”