Voters must adjust as county goes to mail-only ballots (Snohomish County, WA)

Up to 140,000 in Snohomish County have to make the switch from polling stations to home.
By Jeff Switzer / Herald Writer / May 25, 2006
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Snohomish County officials closed election polling places once and for all last week and now begin the move to all-mail elections. Little will change for more than 200,000 voters who cast absentee ballots. But as many as 140,000 voters who have trekked to their local polling places now must switch to the mail-in ballots and learn how the system works.
"We are transitioning into a new phase of elections in Snohomish County, a new era of voting," elections manager Carolyn Diepenbrock said. "For 40 percent of the voters, it's a totally different environment."

The County Council voted in January to switch to mail-only elections, beginning with the September primary. The move follows a statewide trend and sidesteps $1 million in equipment purchase that would have been necessary to meet a legislative mandate. Absentee voters make up about 60 percent of the county's 352,000 voters. For the balance, officials are launching an effort to collect proper mailing addresses in time for the September primary election.
If a voter's address is incorrect on the county voting rolls, that voter runs the risk of not receiving a ballot.

Nearly as important are accurate and current voter signatures, Diepenbrock said. She offered a gentle reminder - not a requirement - that voters might need to update their voter signatures. Some voter registration cards were signed decades ago, and a voter's signature might have changed, she said. Voter signatures are the key standard by which elections officials judge the validity of a mail-in ballot, she said.

Elections workers are trained by the State Patrol to compare the signature on the ballot against a signature displayed on computer screens. "Voters must sign ballots carefully," Diepenbrock said. "Sign it as if it is a legal document." If county elections workers find a mismatched signature while counting ballots, they are forced to send a letter to clear up the matter. A voter might have just two weeks to respond in order to ensure that their vote is counted.

That wasn't the case for voters who used electronic voting machines at polling places. Voters were able to sign a poll book, and signatures weren't checked. Until the county finds a buyer, millions of dollars in electronic voting machines sit idle in the basement of the county administration building. Instead of trucking those machines to school gymnasiums and cafeterias around the county, officials will deliver even more pallets of ballots to the post office. A ballot is mailed to each voter 20 days before each election, and a voters guide is mailed to each household. Under state law, voters are allowed to list their home address and a mailing address where they wish to have their ballot mailed, Diepenbrock said.

Voters don't have to rely on the postal service to return their ballots. Officials plan to open about 25 locations across the county where ballots can be returned in the days leading up to an election. "For people who don't want to put their ballot in the mail for whatever reason, they can come to these drop-off locations," Diepenbrock said. Locations will be announced later this year.

Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer at heraldnet dot com.