Standing guard for Fort Democracy

Time and again, the adage "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" has been offered up down through these 22 decades-plus of our American existence. Thomas Jefferson (perhaps) and numerous others (for sure) have wielded that faithful maxim likely first advanced by Irish orator John Philpot Curran some 223 years ago.

A big part of that eternal vigilance here in Washington? Keeping a watchful eye on our voting process.

 

Today, sentry duty at Fort Democracy in the Evergreen State comes in the form of the Election Administration and Certification Board, a panel to which state Rep. Sam Hunt was just recently reappointed by House Speaker Frank Chopp.

 

Hunt chairs the House Government Operations & Elections Committee. For many years, he's championed government efficiency, including safeguards in the electoral process.

In addition to Hunt and other legislators, the Election Administration and Certification Board features folks from the Secretary of State's office, and people representing county auditors and the major political parties.

Read this story in Spanish.

House takes steps to increase voter participation

While many states across the country are trying to restrict access to the ballot box, the Washington House is moving in the opposite direction.  On Thursday, members passed a slate of bills that will improve voter participation and boost diversity among the men and women who hold elected office in our state.

Chief among those bills is the Voting Rights Act of 2013 which promotes equal voting opportunities and fairness in political subdivisions to improve representation of under-represented groups.  The bill empowers local communities that have had difficulties getting communitiy members elected at-large.

Other voter bills passed today:

• HB 1267 changes registration deadlines to 11 days prior to Election Day.
• HB 1279 allows 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote when they get their driver's license.  They will not be allowed to vot until they are 18, of course, but will be registered and ready.
• HB 1195 expands the requirement that no primary be held when there are no more than two candidates filing for office to include all nonpartisan offices.
• HJM 4001 requests Congress to enact a constitutional amendment returning authority to regulate election-campaign contributions to Congress and the state legislatures.  This Joint Memorial is in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.

Read this story in Spanish.

 

 

Washington elections website receives top marks

​A new report released by the Center for Governmental Studies looked at the elections websites for each state and found that Washington was the third best in the nation.

The report assessed how effective each elections website was in providing detailed and accessible information on candidates, ballot measures, audio/video of debates, sample ballots, etc. Washington was the only state to receive a “B” grade, putting it behind the only “A” states: Alaska and California.

Here is what they said about the Washington Secretary of State’s election page:

“Washington’s state election website provides much of the candidate information voters need to make informed decisions at the ballot box. The site provides voters with candidate lists, candidate photos, elected experience, other professional experience, education, community service, platform statements, phone numbers and email.”

Our performance is even more impressive considering how poorly other states fared. Around the country, elections websites were rather dismal. 42 states received “F” grades for their elections websites, and the “D” grades made up the next five.

You can read the full report from the Center for Government Studies here.

Read this story in Spanish.

If it ain't actually broke.......

In the aftermath of elections in Washington state, one phenomenon is as predictable as concession speeches and victory celebrations: There will be demands to change the law that allows the counting of mail ballots so long as they are postmarked by election day.

 

This year is no different, with newspaper editorials and op-eds calling for Washington to adopt the practice of Oregon -- the only other state with all-mail voting -- where ballots must be delivered to elections officials by election day to be counted.

The impetus for the demands is the delay of days or weeks in determining the outcome in close contests, due to processing of late-arriving ballots. That leaves candidates and politics junkies – categories which probably comprise most readers of The Advance – frustrated.

While all-mail voting eliminates the kind of election-day snafus that afflicted Florida on Nov. 6, it generally requires more time for verification and tabulating of the ballots.

So, critics say, why not speed things up by adopting the Oregon-like election-day deadline? Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed has joined the makes-perfect-sense chorus, pushing bills in the Legislature to effect the change.

Except that the case Reed and others make might not be quite so clear-cut. So argues David “Goldy” Goldstein of The Stranger in Seattle, who says that changing the deadline would do little to reduce the delays.

The problem, Goldstein says, is not that ballots arrive late – even in Washington, the overwhelming majority are delivered by the day after the election – but that elections officials can’t keep up with processing the ballots as they come in.

For Goldstein, the minimal reward from adopting the Oregon approach is outweighed by the risk: that some voters will be disenfranchised if their ballots are delayed in the mail through no fault of their own, or if they aren’t roused to vote by anything other than the excitement of election day itself. Besides, he says, most “ordinary” voters aren’t bothered by what we’ve got now.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

We're on vacation

Campaign season is here once again, which means our blog needs to hibernate for a while. The HDC Advance will be taking an extended vacation in order to comply with election-year restrictions.

You may still contact your representatives at their offices with any questions or requests for further information. For a list of representatives, click here.

In the meantime, we encourage you to check out a variety of resources that will help you stay informed over the next several months.

• Visit the HDC Issues page to learn more about our priorities, 2012 legislative accomplishments, and what’s in store for the road ahead.


• 2012 is a redistricting year. Check out the new maps on the Washington State Redistricting Commission’s website  to see where you landed.


• Stay connected to the Secretary of State’s office and your local county elections office for all the latest information on the upcoming elections.


• Subscribe to our Daily Eclips email for all the latest public policy news from around the state.

Have a great summer. We’ll be back after the election.

To read this story in Spanish, please cick here.

Like professors, motorcycles and singing songs?You must be a liberal.

But if you enjoy fraternities, documentaries and going to bars, you’re probably a conservative.

Those are some of the findings of the emerging field of political neuroscience and evolutionary psychology – and they suggest that our political preferences are less the product of rational consideration than they are hard-wired. A recent article in "New York" magazine reviews the research – and discusses its application to elections.

To read the full article, click here.


To read this post in Spanish, click here.

Reports of this bill's death have been greatly exaggerated (with apologies to Mark Twain)

As we recently noted, some very good bills that made it through the House met untimely deaths over in the Senate amid the procedural drama of Friday, March 2. And the reality is, every session there are scores of great bills that don't quite make it all the way through the process before the clock runs out. It's the nature of lawmaking in our democracy.

However, it has been brought to our attention that the Associated Press is reporting the death of one great bill that actually isn't dead at all.  In fact, it's very much alive and headed to the governor's desk for signature.

House Bill 2499, sponsored by Rep. Andy Billig, requires ballot measure campaigns to identify their top five donors in advertisements.  In the video below you can watch Rep. Billig's speech on the House floor in favor of the measure, in which he describes how our state's ballot initiative process - originally conceived as a "safety valve" against the influence of special interests - has been "turned on its head." This bill brings transparency back to the initiative process, so the public is better informed about who is paying for advertising in favor of - or against - specific measures.

It passed both House and Senate with bipartisan majorities.

To read this post in Spanish, click here.

Public disclosure measure advances

A measure that would improve the transparency of who contributes financially to ballot measures – or who spends big money to defeat them – was voted out of the State Government and Tribal Affairs committee yesterday afternoon.  Its sponsor, Rep. Andy Billig, calls it “a victory for public disclosure.”

The bill would apply to advertising costing $1000 or more that is for or against a ballot measure.  It would require disclosure of the top five financial contributors within the advertisement itself.

More info about the bill and why Rep. Billig thinks it’s the people’s right to know these things can be read here.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

Election turnout up, but still low in off-year

The Washington Secretary of State reported this week that “turnout” in the Nov. 8 election came in at just under 53 percent of all registered voters (the SOS puts “turnout” in quotation marks because the election was conducted entirely by mail, a process designed in part to encourage voting).

That rate of participation was 6 percentage points higher than Secretary of State Sam Reed predicted – but it’s still, of course, barely more than half of all registered voters. And when the 1.94 million ballots cast are compared to the state’s total voting-age (18 and over)  population of 5.14 million, the participation rate drops to about 40 percent.*

Off-year elections without races for president or governor, like the one Nov. 8, yield relatively low participation rates. In the last presidential election, in 2008, turnout reached close to 85 percent – although, again, the percentage of participation among the voting-age population would be considerably lower.

*Those numbers yield a rate of under 38 percent, but the Census figures for the 18-and-over population include non-citizens not eligible to vote, so the turnout of the eligible voting-age population would be somewhat above that percentage.

To read this blog post in Spanish, go here.

Price tags for initiatives now posted

The Office of Financial Management (OFM) is required to provide fiscal impact statements in the voters’ pamphlet for all initiatives on the ballot. These statements can help voters understand the cost and revenue implications of policy proposals. Legislators are provided similar information on bills considered during a legislative session.

This year there are three initiatives that qualified to appear on the November ballot:

• 1125 is an Eyman initiative placing restrictions on tolling funding
  
• 1163 would require background checks and training for long-term care workers
• 1183 is a Costco-back liquor privatization measure
  

The statements for Initiatives 1125, 1163 and 1183 are now posted on the OFM website. They're worth a read.

Census Map: Where we're growing

Washington was included in the most recent release of Census Redistricting Data. As you probably remember, Washington is now the 13th largest state, and will be receiving an additional congressional seat.



Only two counties decreased in population, while one, Franklin County, grew by more than 25 percent.

The Washington State Redistricting Commission is working now to develop new district boundaries for the 49 legislative districts, and the now 10 congressional districts.

If the primary is secondary . . . what’s the point?

You say you’re thinking about throwing a party to celebrate the 2012 Washington presidential primary? Might be a good idea to wait a little while before you send out those invitations. If Rep. Sherry Appleton’s House Bill 1324 makes it to the governor’s office, Washington would take a pass on the 2012 ritual – and save an estimated $12 million in the process.

But wait; wouldn’t that keep our state from having a say at the national Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions? How about all those funny hats and balloons – wouldn’t we miss out on all that? Not really. The last time the state parties were legally bound by the results of our state’s presidential-preference primaries, Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas, Sir Mix-A-Lot was topping the charts with “Baby Got Back,” and Johnny Carson ruled the late-night airwaves. A change in the law in 1995 gave the state parties the option to ignore the primary results and choose their respective delegates at precinct caucuses. They’ve done so in varying degrees ever since.

“If it doesn’t have any relevance,” Appleton asks, “why are we doing it? I’d rather put that $12 million into education, or health care, or services for vulnerable people. Twelve million dollars can go a long way,” she added. “It might seem like a small amount when we’re working on a budget that totals in the billions, but if you put human faces on that $12 million, it becomes a big deal.”

The bill – which Appleton points out would only cancel the 2012 presidential primary, and wouldn’t be a permanent kill – got mixed reactions in a public hearing Wednesday morning in the House State Government & Tribal Affairs Committee. They’ll give the bill a “do pass” or “do not pass” recommendation within a few days.

The Honored Guard

It’s National Guard Day at the state capital today, an opportunity for Legislators, visitors, and staff to honor the service and sacrifice the men and women of the Guard give to our state every day. Led by Major General Timothy Lowenberg, the citizen soldiers and airmen of The Washington National Guard are dedicated to the mission of safeguarding lives and property in Washington State.

With more than 100 uniformed men and women in attendance, the House passed a resolution in their honor. It was sponsored by Rep.Troy Kelley of Lakewood, who represents Joint Base Lewis McChord and Camp Murray. Rep. Kelley served for seventeen years in the U.S. Army Reserve, and he is currently a member of the Washington National Guard.

We also approved a measure, prime-sponsored by Rep. Chris Hurst, that will allow active service members deployed overseas to receive and return their ballots via fax and e-mail.

What's up in the House Friday?

The House will honor the National Guard on the floor tomorrow with a formal resolution, and also with the passage of HB 1000.

This measure will allow our men and women in the armed services deployed overseas to receive and return their ballots by fax and e-mail.

In hearings, we have:

8:00 am HHR E Local Government
Public Hearing:
HB 1478 - Delaying or modifying certain regulatory and statutory requirements affecting cities and counties.

8:00 am HHR B Technology, Energy & Communications
Public Hearing:
1. HB 1606 - Concerning minimum renewable fuel content requirements.
2. HB 1571 - Limiting regulation of electric vehicle battery charging facilities.

1:30 pm HHR A Education
Public Hearing:
1. HB 1443 - Continuing education reforms.
2. HB 1470 - Regarding access to K-12 campuses for occupational or educational information.

1:30 pm HHR C Environment
Public Hearing:
HB 1489 – Limiting the use of fertilizer containing phosphorus.

Shhh! It's an election year

Today is July 1 and the first day that election-year restrictions kick in for communications from your legislators at the House of Representatives.

This means our members' websites will be "frozen" for the rest of the year and they won't be sending out newsletters or mailings. (Well, not legislative ones anyway.)

For our blog it means we'll continue sharing news about legislative and committee meetings, budget news, and progress on implementing recently-passed bills, but things will slow down a bit and rarely will we provide news about our members.

So keep checking in, but if you're wondering why our members seem so quiet all of a sudden, it's because they have to be.

Speaker Pro Tem comments on Oregon election results

Oregon voters approved two measures yesterday -- one that raises income tax on the state's wealthiest residents and another that increases the minimum corporate tax for the first time in decades.

House Speaker Pro Tem Jeff Morris (Mount Vernon) had this to say about the outcome:

"Almost every state in the nation is facing a budget deficit. The results of the Oregon election show that voters recognize filling these deficits by just cutting safety nets will have a long-term negative effect on people individually having a good job and putting food on the table.

"Investments in public education, economic development, worker training and safety nets are critical to assuring a fair shake to the people nad businesses walking on a high wire to economic growth."