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Elections

WA voter reg sets a one-day record; total now tops 4.2m

WA voter reg sets a one-day record; total now tops 4.2m

Voter registrations in Washington hit a new one-day record on Monday, the deadline for online and mail-in registration. In that single day, 27,601 signed up online via the Secretary of State’s MyVote.wa.gov. That broke the previous record set just a day earlier, 23,167. Before that, the all-time one-day record was set last spring, 13,109, with help from Facebook prompts. The number of registered voters now stands at 4,207,379. It’s the first time we’ve exceeded 4.2 million. We celebrated our four…

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WA Voters’ Pamphlet is coming soon!

WA Voters’ Pamphlet is coming soon!

The front cover of this year’s General Election Voters’ Pamphlet. (Image courtesy of Elections Division) As you get ready to vote in the General Election this fall, make sure to check your mail for one of the most useful educational tools you can have before you vote your ballot! The 2016 General Election Voters’ Pamphlet is being mailed to Washington residents over the next week, starting this weekend. If you receive a damaged Voters’ Pamphlet or you don’t receive your…

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Reminder: Oct. 10 is WA voter-reg deadline

Reminder: Oct. 10 is WA voter-reg deadline

A reminder that Monday, Oct. 10, is the deadline for online and mail-in voter registration ahead of the General Election. Secretary Wyman and the state Elections Director Lori Augino said Tuesday that county election departments will also honor mail-in applications with an Oct. 11 postmark. The Oct. 10 deadline could have been a problem for some who are registering by mail, since that is a federal holiday and the post office will not process or postmark on that day or…

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Voters’ Pamphlet accessible to voters living with disabilities

Voters’ Pamphlet accessible to voters living with disabilities

WTBBL narrator Rachel Glass records text from this year’s Voters’ Pamphlet. (Photo courtesy WTBBL) This year’s statewide General Election Voters’ Pamphlet will be mailed out soon to more than 3 million Washington households. The largest edition, at nearly 300 pages, will take even the most patient reader a long time to get through it cover to cover. For Washington voters living with disabilities, trying to read a printed edition of the Voters’ Pamphlet can be an impossible task. Every single…

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Secretary Wyman, auditors propose election reforms

Secretary Wyman, auditors propose election reforms

Secretary of State Kim Wyman and county election leaders have announced a bipartisan proposal to clear the way to check for citizenship of people who want to register and vote in Washington. At a news conference in Spokane on Friday, Wyman and county partners proposed legislation for the upcoming session that would adopt the REAL ID Act for Washington. That would mean people would have to present citizenship verification to get a driver’s license, and election administrators could then do…

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Facebook helps spread the word: Register to vote!

Facebook helps spread the word: Register to vote!

Facebook has launched an internet drive to prompt people to register to vote, including many in Washington. From Friday through Monday, Sept. 26, people on Facebook who are 18 and older will get a reminder at the top of their news feed urging them to get registered to vote – or if they already are registered, to remind their FB friends to do so. Secretary of State  Kim Wyman, the state’s chief elections official, said Washington could set a single-day…

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WA Elections Division reaching out to 140k potential voters

WA Elections Division reaching out to 140k potential voters

Washington’s state Elections Division is sending out postcards to 140,000 state residents who appear eligible to vote, but haven’t yet registered. Many of the cards will go to new 18 year olds and to millennials between 19 and 35. The mailings will have a catchy, humorous graphic and information on how to quickly register online by Oct. 10. About 21,000 will go to 18 year olds and 72,000 to those 19-35. Eligible but unregistered 18 year olds will receive this…

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WA gets high marks for election info accessibility

WA gets high marks for election info accessibility

Ballotpedia, the nonpartisan online info source for politics and elections, has ranked Washington as the most improved state for accessibility of its Elections Division and voter and candidate information. Washington rose from 22nd in 2014 to third in the group’s 2016 ranking of the 50 states.  Washington got high marks for ease of online access, quality of information on the website, vote.wa.gov, and response time. Secretary of State Kim Wyman, the state’s chief elections official, said: “We are delighted to…

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WA General Election voting kicks off this week

WA General Election voting kicks off this week

Washington’s General Election voting season gets under way in just a few days, with counties sending ballots to over 72,000 military and overseas voters around the globe. Federal law provides extra transit time for military and overseas voters, with counties required to send out ballots 45 days before Election Day. This year, that’s Saturday, Sept. 24. A number of soldiers and others have also requested electronic versions. Still others use federal write-in ballots via the Federal Voting Assistance Program at…

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Shannon Cortez joins WA Elections Division as deputy director

Shannon Cortez joins WA Elections Division as deputy director

Secretary of State Kim Wyman has announced the appointment of Shannon Cortez as the new deputy director of elections. Cortez will take her new role on Monday after 18 years of experience in elections administration, both with Pierce County and King County, where she has been deputy elections director. In Pierce, she worked with Auditors Cathy Pearsall-Stipek, Pat McCarthy, Jan Shabro and Julie Anderson, and in King, she assisted Julie Wise. Cortez succeeds Allyson Ruppenthal, who has joined Thurston County…

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