Washington State voting issues

Election and registration information

 * Washington - Secretary of State - Voter Information


 * Washington - Verify you are Registered to Vote

Voting Machines used November, 2008 in Washington State
The source for this section is Verified Voting's Verifier tool.

Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE) machines with a paper trail:
 * Hart InterCivic's eSlate
 * Premier Election Solutions's (Diebold) AccuVote-TSX
 * Sequoia AVC Edge

Optical scan machines:
 * Election Systems & Software's Model 100
 * Election Systems & Software's ES&S Model 115
 * Election Systems & Software's ES&S Model 150
 * Election Systems & Software's ES&S Model 550
 * Election Systems & Software's ES&S Model 650
 * Premier Election Solutions's Diebold AccuVote (including Diebold AccuVote ES-2000)
 * Sequoia [[Optech Insight
 * Sequoia Optech 400C

Digital scan machines:
 * Hart InterCivic Ballot Now

Assistive Devices for Marking Paper Ballots
 * Election Systems & Software's AutoMARK Technical Systems AutoMARK VAT

State and local non-governmental election organizations
League of Women Voters

LWV of Washington, Ms. Barbara Seitle, President
 * 4710 University Way, NE, #214
 * Seattle, WA 98105
 * Phone: 206-622-8961
 * Fax 206-622-4908
 * E-mail: lwvwa@lwvwa.org
 * http://www.lwvwa.org

Local Leagues:
 * Bellingham/Whatcom County
 * Benton-Franklin Counties
 * Clallam County
 * Clark County
 * Cowlitz County
 * Grays Harbor
 * King County South
 * Kitsap County
 * Kittitas Valley
 * Mason County
 * Pullman
 * Seattle
 * Snohomish County
 * South Whidbey Island
 * Spokane Area
 * Tacoma-Pierce County
 * The San Juans
 * Thurston County
 * Whidbey Island
 * Yakima County
 * Skagit MAL Unit
 * Jefferson County Unit at Large
 * Methow Valley MAL unit

Washington Citizens for Fair Elections

Website: http://wafairelections.org/

Felon voting rights
Quoting from an October, 2008 report on "de facto disenfranchisement" (summary)(download PDF) co-published by the Brennan Center for Justice and the ACLU:

"'Washington law does not require people with felony convictions to provide documentation when registering to vote. However, interviews conducted in 2004 revealed that 36% of Washington election officials stated that individuals with felony convictions would need to provide documentation from the court before being able to register to vote. An additional 30% of officials were unclear about the law or refused to answer the question regarding documentation requirements.'"

Voter purges

 * On September 30, 2008, the Brennan Center for Justice released a comprehensive report on voter purging . Appendix B of the report, titled Washington Case Study, states, "Between the close of registration for the November 2004 federal elections and the close of registration for the November 2006 federal elections, Washington deleted 503,151 registrants (15.4% of total registrants) from the state voter rolls".  Purging methods listed in the case study are:
 * Change of Address. Some counties remove voters if any mail is returned as "undeliverable."
 * Duplicates. Some counties remove people with the same date of birth and similar names.
 * Death. Some counties use newspaper obituaries to remove names. "Election officials are not statutorily required to send notice to registrants they intend to remove from the rolls for reason of death."
 * Criminal Conviction. "In practice, despite the statutory requirement, one county official reported never sending notice to registrants whom she intends to remove for disenfranchising convictions."
 * Adjudication of Mental Incapacitation.
 * Voter Inactivity.