A guy from Kenmore writes to ask why in the world Secretary Reed is hot for legislation to require ballots to be received back at the elections office by election night, not just postmarked.

This is what my reply was:  

“Sam’s view is that it’s important for voters, campaigns, the parties and the media to know quicker who has won elections, and with about half of the ballots still not received and processed by election night, that is often very difficult. It can take days to receive ballots from around the globe and the counties now have three weeks to count all ballots and certify the returns. 

Oregon, which now conducts 100 percent of its elections by mail, requires ballots in house by election day, and reports no problem with educating their voters about that requirement. As a practical matter, people are urged to send in their ballots by the weekend. Under our bill, military and overseas ballots still would be accepted and counted if postmarked by election day. And it will still be permissible for voters to cast their mail-in ballots at one of the dropoff sites or at the county elections office.

Deadlines are a part of the elections process, including deadlines for registering, for filing for office and reporting campaign finances, for establishing and changing residency, and for voting. A person who shows up at a poll site — now used only by Pierce County — at 8:01 p.m. on election night must be turned away because voting is over and it’s time to count the votes. The new legislation doesn’t entirely fix the problem of long, dragged-out vote-counts in some close races, but it does accelerate the process somewhat. If it passes muster with the Legislature and the Governor, the state Elections Division commits to significant voter education about the Election Day turn-in requirement.”