Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon and county Auditor Bob Terwilliger are renewing their push to convert the county to an all-mail election system, and it appears they may get their wish. The addition of Dave Somers to the County Council in January will tip the council toward going all-mail, if Somers goes along with his fellow Democrats.
There are about 1.6 million good reasons to make the switch. That’s how many dollars the county would save in 2006 by not having to buy state-mandated paper-auditing machines for its electronic voting machines, along with savings from storage of the machines and other costs associated with running polling places.
The integrity of the election system also figures to be bolstered by moving to a single method of voting. Mail ballots provide a consistent way to keep the county’s voter database up to date. If the signature on a mail ballot doesn’t match the one the county has on file (signatures often change over time), the county is required to contact the voter to get things straightened out. In last month’s election, according to Terwilliger, 2,075 voters in Snohomish County either had a signature that didn’t match the one on file or forgot to sign their ballot altogether. Of those, 1,537 had their signatures verified after being contacted and had their ballot counted.
This is in addition to the security that will be provided by the new statewide voter registration database, due to go online next month. That system will help ensure voters can’t be registered in more than one place.
Still, a significant minority of voters in Snohomish County prefer to cast their ballot at a traditional polling place. If that method is eliminated, their preference should be honored as much as possible. That’s why Terwilliger has proposed maintaining as many as 50 ballot drop-off stations throughout the county that would simulate the traditional polling place.
They could be at schools or other civic gathering places, and would be open during traditional voting hours on election day. Space could be provided for voters to sit down and mark their ballot on site. Drop-off stations also could serve voters who simply prefer not to use the mail to vote.
In last month’s election, 76 percent of the 175,937 people who voted in Snohomish County did so by mail, a percentage that continues to grow. Thirty-one of the state’s 39 counties already have made the switch to all-mail voting. Snohomish County should save taxpayers money by joining them, but with drop-off centers for those who value the traditional polling place.
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