Key electoral reforms proposed (Seattle P-I)

[icymist]

Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Key electoral reforms proposed
Bipartisan package of changes

By NEIL MODIE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

King County would make provisional ballots distinguishable from regular ballots and adopt other changes to lessen future election problems under a bipartisan reform package proposed yesterday by two County Council members.

Julia Patterson, D-SeaTac, and Kathy Lambert, R-Redmond, said improvements are needed to avert future administrative errors like those that occurred in the hotly contested governor's race and to restore public trust in the elections process.

Their legislation would include:


Requiring formatting of provisional ballots to make them distinguishable from standard ballots and prevent machine tabulation of them before the ballots are verified, perhaps by making the provisional ballots too large to be fed into the machines. In the Nov. 2 election, 348 provisional ballots were improperly tabulated before the voters' registration status could be verified.

More:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/210188_elexreform01.html