Washington State voting issues

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Election and registration information

Voting Machines used November, 2008 in Washington State

The source for this section is Verified Voting's Verifier tool.

Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE) machines with a paper trail:

Optical scan machines:

Digital scan machines:

Assistive Devices for Marking Paper Ballots

Main article: Voting machines

Governmental election authorities

State and local non-governmental election organizations

League of Women Voters

LWV of Washington, Ms. Barbara Seitle, President

  • 4710 University Way, NE, #214
  • Seattle, WA 98105
  • Phone: 206-622-8961
  • Fax 206-622-4908
  • E-mail: lwvwa@lwvwa.org
  • http://www.lwvwa.org

Local Leagues:


Washington Citizens for Fair Elections

Website: http://wafairelections.org/

Election threats

Felon voting rights

Quoting from an October, 2008 report[1] on "de facto disenfranchisement" (summary)(download PDF) co-published by the Brennan Center for Justice and the ACLU:

"Washington law does not require people with felony convictions to provide documentation when registering to vote. However, interviews conducted in 2004 revealed that 36% of Washington election officials stated that individuals with felony convictions would need to provide documentation from the court before being able to register to vote. An additional 30% of officials were unclear about the law or refused to answer the question regarding documentation requirements."

Main article: Felon disenfranchisement

Voter purges

  • On September 30, 2008, the Brennan Center for Justice released a comprehensive report on voter purging[2]. Appendix B[3] of the report, titled Washington Case Study, states, "Between the close of registration for the November 2004 federal elections and the close of registration for the November 2006 federal elections, Washington deleted 503,151 registrants (15.4% of total registrants) from the state voter rolls". Purging methods listed in the case study are:
  • Change of Address. Some counties remove voters if any mail is returned as "undeliverable."
  • Duplicates. Some counties remove people with the same date of birth and similar names.
  • Death. Some counties use newspaper obituaries to remove names. "Election officials are not statutorily required to send notice to registrants they intend to remove from the rolls for reason of death."
  • Criminal Conviction. "In practice, despite the statutory requirement, one county official reported never sending notice to registrants whom she intends to remove for disenfranchising convictions."
  • Adjudication of Mental Incapacitation.
  • Voter Inactivity.
Main article: Voter roll purges

Articles and resources

See also


References

  1. Erika Wood and Rachel Bloom,De Facto Disenfranchisement, Brennan Center for Justice and American Civil Liberties Union, October 21, 2008.
  2. Myrna Pérez, "Voter Purges," Brennan Center for Justice, September 30, 2008.
  3. The Washington Case Study is listed in contents as Appendix B, but in the appendix as Appendix 2. The appendix is online at Appendix 2: Washington Case Study

External resources

Poll location

Election Protection hotlines

Voting information

Voting rights

Voting requirements

Election officials, election reform groups, and elected officials

Absentee voting

Disabled voters

Student voting rights

State ballot

  • See how organizations you trust recommend you vote on ballot measures and other statewide contests at TransparentDemocracy.

Languages

  • Help in other languages from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. 中文, 日本語, 한국어, Tagalog, Tiếng Việt, Español

Voting machines

Election law


External articles