Not every editorial has to address some dire need for action or reform. No, this is not one of those passionate cries for virtue over villainy, or justice over evil. Today we’re thinking about something that Washington state does pretty well: collect ballots. There’s no apparent public outcry for change. Still, we can do better.
Most states, including 10 in the West, require all ballots to be turned in by the end of election day, typically by the close of polling places or ballot drop-off sites. (North Carolina has the bizarre practice of requiring absentee ballots to be turned in by 5 p.m. the day before election day).
Washington and a few other states are different. In our all-mail elections (virtually, that is; Pierce County still has polling places), we require only that ballots be postmarked by midnight on election day. As a result, only about one-half to three-quarters of ballots are counted by the end of election day, with incomplete results announced that evening.
Then we all wait. And wait. And wait … for days, as the mail brings in ballots postmarked on election day. And as the Washington Policy Center points out, election day “marks the beginning of election week(s) and the possibility for some close races, election month.”
Again, this doesn’t seem to be much of a problem … yet. But imagine what could happen if a presidential election depended on our state’s electoral votes. Shades of Florida, 2000. Yikes!
Secretary of State Sam Reed advocates changing the deadline to a received-by-election-day system. “We believe it builds greater trust and confidence in the system,” a spokesman for Reed’s office said last year. And we agree. Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, also agrees with the Republican Reed. This week she pointed to Seattle’s drawn-out mayoral race as an example of why this change is needed. As Rachel La Corte of The Associated Press reported, King County officials were still counting ballots and announcing daily updates almost a week after the election. Mike McGinn had a 4,939-vote lead on Monday, when opponent Joe Mallahan finally conceded. Gregoire explained her support for changing the deadline: “Those candidates deserve to know. The people deserve to know.” She is correct.
A number of legislators feel the same way, having introduced legislation several times that would affect such a change. The bills always get stalled in the legislative bureaucracy. One bill that fizzled last year would allow an exception: “For out-of-state voters, overseas voters and service voters,” the election-day-postmark deadline would prevail. That would be a reasonable exception to the tighter deadline.
Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey, who oversees local elections, likes the current deadline and sees little need for change. If counting votes after election day allows more people to participate, that’s fine with him. Good point, and we ordinarily agree with Kimsey on most matters, but on this issue Reed and Gregoire present stronger arguments.
Oregon, another all-mail state, uses the election-day deadline, and it seems to be working well.
Some people suggest that news outlets want the deadline changed because it would give us closure on election night. Frankly, that’s silly and illogical. If this were all about news providers, we’d prefer to string out the suspense for days or weeks. But it’s about the voters and a timely delivery of results.
As we said, it’s not an issue of breathtaking criticality. We’re doing OK, but we can do better.
