Seattle, Washington FBI Bureau File - Paperless Archives

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Election 2006
Registrati~:B forms' late delivery makes 1,100 ine~ble to vote
By Keith Ervin
, Seattle Times staff reporter
About 1,100 KiIig County residents are'not eligfble to vote in the November election because a box containing
their voter-~egistration forms was sent by ppS rather than q.S. mail, election officials said Friday.
, The signed forms, collected iIi Pierce County during a drive to register more minority, and low-income voters,
were picked up by UPS one day before the Oct 7 deadline for mailing registration foi:ms. They arrived at
election headquarters Oct 9. ,
'
Because state law allows registrations to be processed ol;ll.y if there is a "postal cancellation ll by the deadline,
officials say these registrations arrived too late.
"They didn't have a U.S. pos1mark that was po~d in time,1I Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Janine Joly said.
Elections spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said there was nothing on the package that confinned the claim by the
organizers oftha voter~registratioil. drive that they mailed the box before Oct 7. The only date on a UPS
shipping,tag was Oct 9.
But the tag also showed a UPS tracking number. UPS records ,showed the package was ini1ially picked ,up in
Fife at 2:05 p.rn. Oct. 6.' " '" "
The 'voter-registration drive, :fjmded by Project Vote, was condUcted by Washington ACORN (Association of
Community Organizirtions for Reform Now). Registration forms from Pierce County residents were hand-
, ' delivered "to election officials there, said Michael Slater, director of Project Vote's election administration
program..
Slater said the state law appears'to conflict with voters' registerHby"mail rights set out by the federal "Motor
. Voter Act" If King County doesn't agree to let the 1,100 registrants vote, he said, he expects a lawsuit will be
filed in an attempt to strike down what he called "a perverse" state law.
"We're looking for a resolution to get these folks on the rolls," Slater said. He said he hoped the prosecuting
attorney and the secretary of state would "look at the facts again and make the right ~ecisio~."
But Nick Handy; s~te elections director in the Office of the Secretary of Stat e)' said state law is clear. "The way
I see it is there are two standards," Handy said. "Ifyou send it by,the post office, we're going offtb.e postmark.
If you send it by a private organization, it's the date of receipt ... We can argue all day the ~dom of that. II
Although the state deadline for mail-in registrations has passed, citizens may still register in person through
Monday. King County Elections offices at 500 Fourth Ave. in dpwntown Seattle will be open from 9 am. to 3
p.rn. today and 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday.
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Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@.seattletimes,com
Copyright C2QQ§ The SeaHleTimcs Company
1/25/2007