What do 3.3 million Voters’ Pamphlets look like?

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The statewide Voters’ Pamphlet for the 2010 General Election will be delivered to your mailbox in the next two weeks - about the same time Washington voters receive their ballots. In fact, voters in some counties will receive their pamphlets late this week. King County voters will be the last to receive their pamphlets. Those should arrive around October 16. That pamphlet in your mailbox will be one of 3.3 million. That’s a lot of pamphlets! We’ve tried to keep the tree killing to a minimum, as the vast majority of the Voters’ Pamphlets were printed on recycled paper. Creating the pamphlets is such a big job that one company alone can’t handle all the printing. This year, the work was divvied up among the three largest printers in the state. The presses run 24/7, but printing the pamphlets still takes nearly three weeks. When printing is complete, the pamphlets are bundled and sent to the post office for distribution to every household in the state. Above is a photo of the bundled pamphlets stacked 15 feet high, taken Monday at one of the print shops. Here are some other interesting facts about the 2010 Voters’ Pamphlet: • Each pamphlet costs roughly the same as a postage stamp to print and ship to every household in the state. • Twenty-eight editions of the pamphlet are created, including Spanish and Chinese editions. • Additional editions are created in alternative formats such as Braille, audio and large print for voters with limited vision. If you want to get a head start on studying the candidates and ballot measures on this November’s ballot, check out the Online Voters’ Guide.