Opinion-Editorial

February 25, 2005

What to look for from the election reform task force

By Bob Williams
Washington voters turned out in large numbers and with constructive attitudes at a series of public hearings sponsored by Gov. Christine Gregoire’s election reform task force, chaired by Secretary of State Sam Reed.

When the task force reports its findings on March 1, there are several things all of us should hope to find. If we do not find them, it will be clear that the task force was little more than a smokescreen to preserve the status quo under the guise of meaningful reform and that ineligible voters will continue to be a factor in our state’s future elections.

Task force member Sam Smith, the President Emeritus of Washington State University, took particular pains after each of the hearings to outline those things he heard from voters concerning the need to reform the system. After each point, he asked attendees if they agreed with him. They did.

Chief among the recommendations is the re-registration of all eligible Washington voters – with proof of citizenship. Iraq registered 14.3 million voters that way in only 45 days. Fewer than 3 million voters voted in Washington’s gubernatorial election. If Iraq can do it, so can we!

An argument has been forwarded by our Secretary of State that re-registering all citizens is not possible under the Motor Voter federal law. This is not true. What our state cannot do is drop people from voter lists for federal elections. That said, the federal law applies to people who are legitimate voters. Several ways exist to re-register voters without breaking the federal law and potentially discriminating against legitimate voters. We find nothing in the law that prevents 100 percent re-registration.

We need to clean our voter rolls and remove people who have died, people who are illegally registered, felons, and people who have moved out of state.

People overwhelmingly supported showing state-issued, photo and signature identification when they come in to vote. Some people argue that showing identification is arduous. Others say it is common sense. We side with the folks arguing for common sense.

After all, you cannot even rent a post office box without showing two pieces of identification.

Other hearing participants argued persuasively that state and local officials must be compelled to implement and enforce the federal voter reform measures adopted by the Congress in 2002 and the state legislature in 2003. Unfortunately, those law changes were not implemented in the 2004 election, the result being that local officials frequently were relying on old law books to interpret the law. There is no rationale or justification for that. Most of the 2004 election problems would have been eliminated if state officials had simply followed the law. That is not too much to expect.

While the Secretary of State has spoken at some length about restoring voting rights to felons who have served their sentences, not much has been said about ensuring the timely and accurate count of military ballots. Hearing participants feel strongly about that, and so should our state government.

Hearing participants made several other important points.

They want to repeal or modify the motor-voter law to minimize abuse. When someone applies for a driver’s license in Washington, they are not required to provide proof of citizenship, but they are asked if they would like to register to vote! The potential for abuse is obvious, but nobody has addressed it yet.

People also are leery of computer program generated voting and want a paper trail for all computerized systems for verification purposes. But nobody trusts anything that happens in King County. And that should make us take some time to evaluate the merits of mail-in ballots, which also are prone to abuse and fraud.

Measures before the state legislature right now probably won’t harm the electoral system any more, but they are band-aids designed to cover up existing voter discontent. Too many elections officials hope that the passage of time will change people’s attitudes.

Time may heal all wounds, but the integrity of the elections system will remain at risk. The keystone of a democracy is the trust of the people in the integrity of the system. The integrity of Washington’s voting system is at a new low.

If Governor Gregoire’s task force election report fails to take into account the concerns of citizens who attended the public hearings, we will know that the fix was in…that the task force was yet another smokescreen.

That isn’t good enough.

Bob Williams is president of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a non-partisan, public policy watchdog organization, focused on advancing individual liberty, a free-market economy, and limited and responsible government.

Contact: Booker Stallworth | Communications Director | 360-956-3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org