EVERETT – A move in the Legislature to allow people to register to vote on Election Day is drawing intense fire from election officials across the state.
The state auditor’s association is lobbying hard to kill the effort, which supporters say would remove barriers to voting.
The bill, which passed the state Senate last month, is being considered in a House committee.
Registering all eligible voters in time for an election is a hallmark of the state’s election laws, Snohomish County Auditor Carolyn Diepenbrock said.
However, simultaneously registering voters and allowing them to vote on Election Day “certainly calls into question the integrity of the election system,” she said.
“After the 2004 election, is that a place we want to be?” she said. “This may sound good, but there are significant consequences down the road.”
Diepenbrock said a worst-case estimate shows 61,000 voters could seek to register on Election Day during a presidential election.
That means more money for more staff, more computer hardware and software and potentially more confusion, she said.
The proposed bill would force election officials to juggle possibly thousands of voter registrations and their accompanying ballots on Election Day, said Island County Auditor Suzanne Sinclair, a former president of the state auditor’s association.
If a race is close, adding new voter registrations to the mix could violate the appearance of fairness, she said.
“It is not healthy for the credibility of the election process,” she said.
State law currently requires a voter register by mail at least 30 days before an election in which they want to cast a ballot, or in person at least 15 days before that election. Once a registration is filed, election officials verify the person’s identification with the state and work to get a ballot to that voter in time for the election.
In a world where people conduct business online, there’s an expectation to be able to do things swiftly and at the last minute, including registering to vote, said state Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park.
“This is a very good idea, particularly for the young folks who have never registered or have just moved into the state,” Fairley said. She and the Democratic majority in the Senate approved Senate Bill 5561 last month in a vote that followed party lines.
State GOP leaders are targeting the bill with venom born from the close 2004 gubernatorial election.
“It is a mystery why legislators are so seemingly unconcerned that this bill makes it easier to commit fraud and steal elections,” state GOP chairman Luke Esser said.
A state analysis put the cost of the bill at $4.8 million in the next two years, a price tag Fairley says is inaccurate and will likely kill the bill.
“Nobody likes a new idea when they first hear it,” she said. “You have to get used to it. This is something that maybe by next year people will get used to it and the same objections won’t happen.”
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