State's elections officials deserve a pat on the back
Friday, November 7, 2008 12:35 AM PST
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Tuesday’s history-making election brought more than 133 million people to the polls, the largest number of voters in at least four decades. Yet the election was virtually problem free, by most accounts. No hanging chads or voters mistakenly purged from the rolls in Florida. No voters turned away due to ballot shortages or voting machine breakdowns in Ohio. No suspicious ballots surfacing at the last minute in Washington’s most populated and bluest county.
What a difference eight years have made. That and a lot of hard work by national, state and county elections officials.
The Florida debacle in the 2000 presidential election was a wake-up call that set in motion a series of election reforms throughout the nation. The reforms could not come soon enough to prevent problems with voting four years later in Ohio or avert Washington’s confidence-crushing meltdown during the 2004 gubernatorial election.
This week it seemed that the most serious problems plaguing those previous elections had been fixed. It probably helped not to have a presidential race decided by just a few electoral votes or a governor chosen by a whisker-thin margin of just 133 votes. But election officials had far more to do with this relatively problem-free election than luck. That’s particularly true with regard to this state’s election officials.
Washington has seen more than 1,000 administrative improvements in the elections system and at least 180 election law reforms over the last four years. A statewide database was launched in 2006 to keep track of registered voters and purge felons and deceased voters from the rolls. Previously, Washington voters were listed separately by the state’s 39 counties. Since the consolidated list of registered voters was created, almost half a million duplicate registrations, felons and deceased voters have been purge from the rolls.
Another state election reform involved moving up the date of Washington’s primary elections from mid-September to mid-August. It’s an important change — one that ensures adequate turnaround time between the primary and general elections. Before the change, counties usually had only about three weeks to print and mail general election ballots to voters in the state and overseas. That wasn’t much of a problem when most Washingtonians voted at the polls on Election Day. But as more citizens began voting by mail, it became a serious concern. Three weeks simply was not enough time to allow for a close primary race requiring a recount.
We believe the state elections could benefit by lengthening that turnaround a bit more. Washington ought to follow Oregon’s lead and require vote-by-mail ballots to be postmarked by the Friday before the election or received before the polls close on Election Day. Currently, ballots need only be postmarked by Election Day, which means they can trickle in for a week or so after the election.
Other than that fine tuning or the process, it would appear that state elections officials got it about right. They and their colleagues in the counties deserve a round of applause for Tuesday’s smooth operation.
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