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Category: Voter registration

Baseless attacks on voter-registration partnership weaken us all

Baseless attacks on voter-registration partnership weaken us all

By Secretary of State Steve Hobbs A one-of-a-kind national resource for state elections leaders like me is being torn apart by partisanship and misinformation. The voters of Washington are worse off for it. Like dozens of states, Washington’s elections rely on collaboration to help keep our voter rolls valid and guard against double-voting. That’s accomplished through the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which Washington founded with a bipartisan group of six other states in 2012 as a shared-cost, independent, and…

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Al Swift and Ralph Munro: How motor voter went national

Al Swift and Ralph Munro: How motor voter went national

Tacoma native and former U.S. Rep. Al Swift, who died April 20 at 82, was a national leader in expanding voter participation across the political spectrum. The motor-voter bill President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993 was authored by Swift, as was the version that had been vetoed by President George Bush in 1992. In a career that also included the legislative victories of restored Amtrak service between Seattle and British Columbia and mandatory handicapped access to polling places,…

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WTBBL hosts event to help voters with disabilities

WTBBL hosts event to help voters with disabilities

In conjunction with Get out the Disability Vote Week, the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library  hosted an event to help members of the disability community take part in this summer’s Primary. Accessible voting units were made available at WTBBL Wednesday for voters who need assistance completing their ballot. The event was a partnership between WTBBL and the National Federation of the Blind of Washington, Washington Council of the Blind, King County Elections and the state Elections Division. WTBBL is…

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April Special Election under way

April Special Election under way

Nearly 10 percent of Washington’s registered voters are receiving ballots for the 2017 April Special Election voting period that ends April 25. The state Elections Division reports that mail ballots were sent by last Friday to 388,362 voters (9 percent of state’s registered voters) in 15 counties for this election. Nearly 306,000 of the April voters are found in Spokane County. Military and overseas ballots were sent out in March. Measures facing voters include school, fire, hospital, city and county….

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OSOS legislative package includes Presidential Primary date change, other election reforms

OSOS legislative package includes Presidential Primary date change, other election reforms

Secretary of State Kim Wyman is proposing a date change for Washington’s Presidential Primary, as well as other reforms of the state’s elections system as part of her package of requested bills to the Legislature this year. Wyman is asking legislators to make a few modifications to the state’s Presidential Primary, including moving its date from the fourth Tuesday in May to the second Tuesday in March. “The lateness of Washington’s Presidential Primary last year made it clear that we…

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Gov. Inslee & Secretary Wyman certify 2016 election

Gov. Inslee & Secretary Wyman certify 2016 election

Secretary Wyman and Gov. Inslee certify the 2016 General Election returns. (Photos courtesy of Patrick McDonald) Secretary of State Kim Wyman and Gov. Jay Inslee have certified the returns for the 2016 General Election, including a record number of ballot measures and hotly contested races from the White House to local offices. The election drew record voter registrations of nearly 4.3 million and the most ballots ever counted in the state, over 3.36 million.  The turnout was nearly 79 percent,…

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Washington celebrating Get out the Disability Vote Week

Washington celebrating Get out the Disability Vote Week

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman on Monday launched the state’s first Get out the Disability Vote Week to bring attention to accessible voting information and ballots to the disability community and encourage them to participate in the upcoming General Election and learn how a ballot is counted. The state also took note of National Disability Voter Registration Week July 11-15. Twelve county election departments are also participating in the event (Cowlitz, Island, Chelan, Jefferson, Kittitas, Thurston, Pierce, Franklin, Clark,…

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`Watershed year’: WA voting season under way!

`Watershed year’: WA voting season under way!

Washington’s voting period for the 2016 Election is under way, with counties mailing about 4.2 million ballots and awaiting a robust turnout of at least 80 percent. A handful of counties sent ballots on Tuesday and nearly all the rest were scheduled to go out Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is the deadline for outbound mail. Deadline for a postmark is Election Day, Nov. 8, and drop boxes may be used before 8 p.m. that day. A record 4,250,526 Washington residents…

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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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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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