Reed's legislation allowing electronic voter registration would make Washington a national front runner in modern election practices.
"People already enjoy the ability to file their taxes online, renew car tabs and a driver's license online, make travel arrangements from a website, bank at home from their computer, and handle stock transactions through the internet," said Reed. "Giving citizens the option to register to vote electronically would take Washington's voter registration system into the digital age."
Citizens who have a Washington State driver's license or state identification card would be able to register to vote online. The online registration process would require citizens to supply their first and last names, dates of birth, addresses, and driver's license or state identification numbers. To safeguard the accuracy and integrity of electronic applications, security measures similar to what banks and retailers use for online financial transactions will be in place.
"In 2002, Washington became the first state in the nation to allow candidates to file for office electronically. This year two thirds of candidates who filed with my office chose to file online," stated Reed. "We must adapt to the needs of the public and electronic registration is the next step."
Reed is also seeking legislation to ensure that voters who fail to check a party box in the partisan primary will still have their votes counted. Consolidated ballots include candidates from both major political parties. Under current law, voters using the consolidated ballot are required to check a party box in order for their partisan votes to be counted. Voters are then required to vote for candidates from that political party. During the 2006 Primary Election, approximately nine percent of those who cast consolidated ballots failed to check a party box, invalidating all partisan votes on those ballots.
"This cannot happen again," said Reed. "A citizen's votes shouldn't be disqualified because of neglecting to check a box." Reed's solution permits counties to count the partisan votes in cases where a voter fails to mark a party, but continues to vote a straight party ticket.
"Since 2004 Washington has adopted and implemented many elections reforms. The Legislature and county elections officials have done an outstanding job of addressing problems to improve our elections process," noted Reed. "The 2006 Primary and General Elections went very smoothly. This shows the progress our state has made and that the improvements to our elections system are working."
