Leaders aim to give boost to aerospace

A high-level group of industry and government leaders plans a Monday kickoff for a new effort to support the state’s aerospace industry.

The group is calling itself the Aerospace Futures Alliance of Washington. It will be led by Linda Lanham, who has for years been a lobbyist for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

The effort is gaining support from top elected officials including Gov. Chris Gregoire, as well as business executives including Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief Alan Mulally.

The goal is to bring together public and private groups with a stake in the aerospace industry so they can “speak with one voice” on issues that are important to it, said Alex Glass, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.

Murray will be one of the speakers at Monday’s kickoff event, a breakfast meeting at the Hilton Hotel at SeaTac.

“Boeing’s had a bang-up year, but it hasn’t always been that way,” Glass said. “This is one united front to move forward to the future.”

Aerospace manufacturers and airline companies employ more than 100,000 people in Washington state – a figure that’s on the rise as the Boeing Co. hires new production workers and designers, and as suppliers for its 787 program look to move to the state.

Even so, backers claim, the industry doesn’t have much public visibility. The goal of the new group is to raise the industry’s profile, while advocating for policies that support the entire aerospace industry.

“The importance of the aerospace industry has fallen off the radar screen in terms of policy in this country,” Glass said.

By backing the new group, Murray and others are saying, “We support this industry; we support these workers,” she said.

Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@ heraldnet.com.

Leaders aim to give a boost to aerospace

By Jeff Switzer

Herald Writer

In essence, there has risen a stink in favor of ink.

Snohomish County election officials sent out new mail-ballot instructions this week to 164,000 voters telling them to use only No. 2 lead pencils to mark their ballots.

The trouble is, 10 voters who had just received their ballots called election officials worried that their votes could be erased.

“They were upset that the instructions say to use a No. 2 pencil, and are afraid (someone) might erase their vote and change their vote,” county elections manager Carolyn Diepenbrock said.

Voters used to be able to use either a black ink pen or a No. 2 pencil.

But that caused problems in November, when some people voted with felt pens that bled through some paper ballots, making it difficult for election machines to accurately tabulate their votes, she said.

So in with pencils, out with pens. The instructions are atop the absentee ballots just mailed out.

Given the concerns, election officials will allow voters to use black pens so long as they don’t bleed through the ballot, Diepenbrock said.

“If you’re going to use a pen, make only one line, and don’t use any sort of ink that will bleed through the paper,” Diepenbrock said. “That’s way too much information to put on a ballot, but that’s what we’re trying to get at.”

The ballot instructions might change again before the March 14 election to clearly tell voters to avoid felt pens, she said.

And no one is altering or erasing votes, Diepenbrock said.

“We assure (callers) that whenever ballots are touched, there’s a group of two individuals, one being a Republican and one Democrat, and it still concerns them,” she said.

Erasers are not allowed in ballot counting centers, nor are black or blue pens or pencils, she said. Only red pens are allowed on the ballot tables, and red ink can’t be read by the vote tabulation machines.

Voters are seeing another change, with specially designed purple envelopes. State law now requires a larger flap to shield a voter’s signature to protect it from potential identity thieves.

Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@ heraldnet.com.

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