Sensible election safeguards are needed

2005-02-09

by Julia Patterson, Kathy Lambert and Bob Ferguson

Voter confidence in the election process is paramount to maintaining the integrity of democracy.

Throughout Washington state, errors were brought to light during the tabulation of the closest gubernatorial election in state history. The courts are now reviewing the election results. Whatever the judicial outcome, voter confidence in our election system suffered.

The King County Council implemented election reforms after the 2002 general election when many voters failed to receive their absentee ballots on time:

* The council retained an independent professional election consultant to conduct a comprehensive audit of the 2002 general election.

* The council established the Citizens' Election Oversight Committee to make recommendations for improving the accuracy and transparency of county elections.

* The council implemented the recommendations of Secretary of State Sam Reed following an independent audit of county elections in 2003.

* The council invested nearly $1.1 million in a new election management computer system, administrative improvements, security procedures, additional equipment and staff.

* The council required the director of the Department of Records, Elections, and Licensing Services and the superintendent of elections be confirmed by the King County Council. In 2003, the council confirmed professionals with significant election experience for both positions.

Despite these efforts, there is obviously more work to be done.

Last week, we proposed a bipartisan package of reform measures to improve King County's election process. This package includes:

* Requiring provisional ballots to be formatted in such a way as to distinguish them from standard ballots and to prevent machine tabulation at the polling location. Currently, there is no way to distinguish between a standard ballot and a provisional ballot.

In the 2004 general election, 348 provisional ballots were improperly fed into ballot tabulation machines. To date, 252 of these provisional voters have been identified as registered voters, but 96 ballots remain in question.

* Requiring the Department of Elections to develop a space plan to centralize election facilities. King County elections currently operates out of multiple facilities. This lack of centralization creates unnecessary operational and communication challenges.

* Increasing funding for the training of temporary and full-time employees to reinforce proper election procedures in handling ballots, staffing poll locations and managing voter registration lists.

* Directing King County elections to conduct a pilot, special election entirely by mail. This will provide important data regarding voter turnout, costs and voter feedback on such a system.

King County currently operates two separate voting systems -- one at the polls and one by mail. Voters are increasingly opting to participate by mail. For example, over 60 percent of ballots cast in the 2004 general election were by mail -- an increase of more than 10 percent from the 2000 presidential election. This will open the discussion on voting systems.

When it comes to election reform, it is important to remember that counties are creatures of the state. As a result, state law largely dictates election procedures for all counties. Most substantive election reforms, such as moving up the date of the primary to June or August, require changes in state law and must be passed by the Legislature.

Efforts to improve the election system should move forward in a bipartisan manner. Together we can achieve real election reform.

Democrat Julia Patterson represents south King County on the King County Council. Republican Kathy Lambert represents east King County. Democrat Bob Ferguson represents north Seattle.