Anyone else get a letter from the Snohomish County auditor?

[wickerwoman]

I just got one saying that the signature on my registration card and the one on my last ballot didn't match. I'm supposed to send them another voter declaration card but the deadline is tomorrow (just got the letter today) and it will take at least two weeks to get the card back to them (be damned if I'm paying for FedEX for this shit.) Ironically, the name of the county auditor on the letter and the envelope is different. Does anyone know anything about her? If I don't send in this declaration, I guess they won't count my vote... but thank god the citizens of Snohomish County are so well protected from election fraud...

I haven't gotten my absentee ballot yet either... is that weird?

[eridani]

1. Call them up and demand an extension

You can register to vote until October 4th.

[wickerwoman]

2. I sent them an e-mail explaining the situation.

I live in China and didn't want to waste international minutes on this. I've been registered for fourteen years and have never had a problem with my signature before. I guess that's what I get for voting in local elections...

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. You can blame the stupid push for "all mail-in" voting

Now, the one and only way they have to verify voter identification -- assuming they even receive your ballot, which is no longer a certainty -- is to match the signature on the ballot with the signature on the voter registration card they have on file. If the signatures do not match, your vote is shredded. Now that the positive ID of mail-in voters has become a vitally important issue, they are paying a lot more attention to this than they have in the past. You can bet that a lot of people will be disenfranchised because of this.

[eridani]

9. In King County, your vote is most assuredly NOT shredded

Don't know about Snohomish, though.

In King County, non-matching signatures result in two phone contacts and one mail contact for signature update. The ballots are not under any circumstance shredded, and you have until the day before certification to submit a new signature.


I agree that poll voting should be kept as an option, and I recommend that people either drop their ballots off in Renton or bring them to the polls on election day. There is a separate side pocket on the AccuVote for absentee ballots turned in at the polling place.

[SeattleGirl]

3. I wonder if it's another attempt at voter caging.

I find it very suspicious that you were essentially given no time to respond.

Check this out. It's got a link where you can check your voter registration status.

http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/register.aspx

I would be highly suspicious of this letter/deadline.

[eridani]

4. I think Obama would be worth the international minutes--

--unless you are seriously strapped financially. See if you can arrange to fax them your current signature.

[LisaM]

6. We had a similar thing happen two election cycles ago

First, we seem to get new voter ID cards every fricking election, even though nothing has changed. It's driving me crazy. But we also got a thing about the matching signature, and were given virtually no time to respond.

I think we all need to call the SOS and ask if there is caging going on. Additionally, we need to try and prevent this mail-in ballot thing. Since they don't pay for the postage, it comprises a poll tax which is ILLEGAL.

[2 Much Tribulation]

8. Poll tax? Nah, you can drive X miles and spend $4.00 on gas to avoid the postage cost

that postage ain't no "poll tax" ;)

yeah, in theory you can avoid the postage but in reality there's nowhere near as many places to drop off ballots for mail in as there are real precincts in a real election

[chicagoexpat]

7. DO IT -- 7,000 ballots were ruled invalid in KIng County 4 years ago...

3,000 missed the deadline -- and Gregoire won by only 133 votes!

Several thousand had this happen to them in the primary, the Dems are trying to call them & let Dems know their vote didn't count cause of signature changes.

You can call your local election office to find out if your ballot was counted or not.

Then contact the Washington State offices for donations or volunteering, Obama & the Coordinated Campaign w/ state offices:

Seattle: 1310 Mercer St, Seattle WA 98101, 206-903-0172

Others at:

http://www.chrisgregoire.com /

http://www.waforobama.com/Offices.html