King of the hill ... and happy snail mail
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King County (Seattle) has now officially shifted to conducting all elections by mail. With neighboring Pierce (Tacoma) now the only holdout for partial use of poll-site voting, Washington has nearly completed a dramatic, and voluntary, shift to all-mail voting over the past decade.
The state Elections Division recently gave provisional approval to new, faster ballot tabulation equipment, and King County Elections' new popularly elected director, Sherril Huff, greenlighted all-mail voting. The County Council on Monday made it official, adopting an ordinance. Huff's office says, "We are ecstatic about this decision and well-prepared to become the largest (local) jurisdiction in the nation to conduct all-mail voting."
The Legislature, at the request of the Secretary of State, previously authorized no-excuse permanent absentee voting, and then okayed local-option so counties could decide for themselves when or if to make the switcheroo. Now most of us vote this way.
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Secretary of State
Steve Hobbs
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