Counties can say all votes go postal

OLYMPIA — For most Washington voters, casting a ballot in any election is as simple as a signature and stamp. Now that the state has given counties a green light to switch to all-mail voting, the practice is expected to become even more widespread.

The state already has a generous absentee-ballot law that has led to 70 percent of the state's registered voters casting their ballots by mail. Several counties have already switched to running elections completely by mail, citing convenience and cost savings.

But a new law makes it even easier for the state's 39 counties to make the kitchen table, not the polling site, the center of civic participation. Already a third have decided to do just that and others could quickly follow suit.

"It's a friendlier process of voting," said Harry Abbot, an Everett voter who supports the switch, though his county, Snohomish, hasn't yet indicated whether it supports a countywide switch. "You can do it at home. You have time to study the issues and the candidates."

The measure, signed into law last month with other election-reform bills, takes effect this summer.

Supporters see increased voter registration, less expenses for the county and less chance for fraud.

"It's more convenient for voters; it fits with the modern lifestyle," said Bill Bradbury, secretary of state in Oregon, where a citizen initiative made voting by mail a statewide standard in 1998. "It increases turnout and it provides you with an automatic paper trail with how people have voted."

But opponents see a loss of the traditional rite of standing on line at the polling place, and worry about increased opportunity for fraudulent voting.

"Don't trade cost savings for the destruction of the private ballot," said Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver. "We've relegated voting to the same level of sending a form for Publishers Clearinghouse sweepstakes."

Opponents cite the potential for ballots to be lost in the mail, for a voter who recently moved to get two ballots, and for the ballots of deceased voters to be cast by others.

Under the new law, each county council or board of commissioners, along with county election officials, can decide to make the switch to mail ballots. Both must agree in order for the change to take place. Currently, a county can make the switch only if it has no precincts of more than 200 people.