The Washington House has voted unanimously in favor of a bill championed by Secretary of State Sam Reed to help our military and overseas voters.  Senate committee action on a broader bill is scheduled for Monday.

House Bill 1000, sponsored by Rep. Chris Hurst and others, would allow soldiers and Washington voters abroad to return their voted ballots by fax or email, as many states do. Currently, ballots can be sent electronically to the voter, but the final voted ballot must be returned “snail mail” before the vote will be counted.

Secretary Reed was pleased with the 95-0 vote, and he hopes the Senate will follow suit. The Senate elections panel has scheduled action Monday on a broader Reed-proposed version that includes both the military voting provisions and a plan to move the state’s primary two weeks earlier in August.

The earlier primary would help the state’s 39 counties meet new federal mandates that all military and overseas ballots go out at least 45 days before Election Day.  Currently the state’s relatively late primary makes it difficult for some counties to get the ballots in the mail on time. (After each primary, it takes three weeks to have results certified, followed by state certification, possible recounts or court proceedings,  and preparation of a wide array of ballots.)

Last year, the state got special permission to keep its 30-day advance mailout deadline, since Washington accepts military and overseas ballots for three weeks after the Election Day. That gives the state over 50 days total transit time.  However, the feds have advised Washington that the 45-day pre-election deadline is important and that the state shouldn’t try to get by with annual requests for waivers.

The Senate version is SB 5171 by Sen. Steve Hobbs and others.

Reed said:

“We strongly support Rep. Hurst’s bill, certainly, but hope the Legislature will adopt a final version that allows us to be in full compliance with federal law.  We have a long history in this state of providing strong voter services to our military and to the many people whose jobs take them abroad or serve so well in mission and relief work.”

Washington has roughly 50,000 military and overseas voters, and the fifth highest military population in America.  We have five military installations.