Comments on: No more ballot drop box in Ballard

By: jw

jw — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:54:21 +0000

. . . and if they change the rule from valid if "postmarked by" to "arrives by" that'll further eat away at my confidence.

What's your remedy if you have a reasonable expectation of delivery but for some reason the ballot arrives past the deadline?

Path from voters hand to dept. of elections custody is too complicated when it gets mixed in with the general mail system. Perhaps I'll start using trackable service . . . but that's not more convenient.

By: fuzzbeans

fuzzbeans — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:29:00 +0000

If you do use the US mail, there are a number of safeguards in place: secured mailboxes, return address on the envelope, your pull-off tab on the ballot. The US Postal Service takes its responsibility very seriously: ever get one of those ripped up pieces of mail? Even though they made a mistake, they make sure you get the bits and pieces. I'd say it's a pretty close to fool-proof system in all.

By: jw

jw — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:27:17 +0000

Here's what I got back from the county exec. Obviously they don't understand our concerns and don't consider it important to provide those of us that have issues with vote-by-mail with alternatives. I don't get any sense that it was a "difficult decision".

I wonder what the $141,000 looks like in comparison with the total budget for elections?

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Thank you for your message on January 26, 2010, regarding the closing of King County neighborhood ballot drop boxes. I understand your concerns and would like to address the decisions made around this issue.

The elimination of King County neighborhood ballot drop boxes was a very difficult decision finalized by the King County Council in the 2009 budget. This cost saving measure resulted in $141,000 in savings with the elimination of all but two ballot drop box locations.

Ballot Drop Box Locations:
Seattle, King County Administrative Building, 500 Fourth Avenue, 98104
Tukwila, King County Elections Headquarters, 9010 East Marginal Way S, 98108

Voting Centers- ballots can be dropped off during business hours:
Seattle, Union Station, 401 S. Jackson St, Seattle, 98104
Bellevue City Hall, 450 110th Avenue NE, Bellevue, 98009
Tukwila, King County Elections, 9010 East Marginal Way S, 98108

The neighborhood ballot boxes were first constructed for convenience to help assist voters during the transformation to a complete ‘vote by mail’ process in King County. The Elections Office was asked by the King County Council and King County Executive ways to reduce non-mandatory services. At this time, King County is essentially in the process of eliminating non-mandatory functions in order to preserve mandatory operations of King County services. Ballot drop boxes are a non-mandatory function of King County Elections. Weighing the benefits and costs of services, the decision to eliminate most ballot drop boxes was made.

Thank you again for expressing your concerns with the elimination of the King County ballot drop box locations. I hope you recognize the difficult decision that was made with much reluctance by the King County Council.

Sincerely,

Dow Constantine
King County Executive

By: jw

jw — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:22:22 +0000

Not hard. But . . . I don't like a number of things about the situation. Among them, concerns about the chain of custody and the general ability to guarantee the process. I don't consider dropping a government ballot into a mailbox to have the same sense of assurance as when the responsibility is entirely under the management of the elections agency. Now, they've more-or-less taken away our option to avoid using the US mail.

By: Mondoman

Mondoman — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:54:56 +0000

Rather than a single ballot sheet as for the in-person voting, the mail-in ballots involve an outer envelope, an inner envelope, and the ballot itself. These all need to be stored securely in a tamper-proof location until counted, so extra storage space is needed that was not required for precinct voting.

With precinct voting, volunteers/low-paid day workers ensured votes were tallied as the ballots were deposited in the precinct machines spread throughout the city; now, centralized high-throughput machines, staff to run them, and a fair amount of office space are needed.

With mail-in voting, signature verification is performed on every ballot envelope; this was not done for precinct voting. Signature verification requires additional staff, machines, and floor space to do the verification. It's actually the most time-consuming and expensive part of the vote-counting process.

The election office has to pay for postage to mail ballots to voters; this was not necessary with precinct voting.

By: fuzzbeans

fuzzbeans — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:40:50 +0000

I'm sorry, but what's so hard about mailing your ballot? Am I missing something?

By: plaidass

plaidass — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:47:18 +0000

On top of the inconvenience of losing a drop box here in Ballard I took our ballots downtown to the drop box on 4th Avenue and it could not possibly be in a worse location. The entire block in front of the drop box is a bus zone and also a construction area. With no place to park, even close, I ended up parking four blocks away and had to pay. Just to vote. Voting should be free.

By: gobigblue

gobigblue — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:56:27 +0000

what extra staff and machinery and office space? they'd have to count the votes regardless of whether they were made at a polling station or mailed into their office

By: gobigblue

gobigblue — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:52:59 +0000

douchebag?

thanks for such a mature, intelligent contribution to the dialog

it's only a poll tax if it's collected by the municipality who runs the election

the united states postal service doesn't run king county elections

By: TTTCOTTH

TTTCOTTH — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:50:36 +0000

It costs me 44 cents to vote. That is a tax douchebag

By: Novalis

Novalis — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:02:27 +0000

It isn't anything about a D or R , it's persons just going what they're employed to do.

Should hire twice as many and cut all the staff of the dept. pay them half of what it is now.. I think. Couldn't be less incompetent.

Alot of people need jobs, guessing these present ones don't deserve one, anymore.

I mail-in btw.

By: Novalis

Novalis — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:47:50 +0000

Ok, several b.s. options going on here.

A mother bird pretending to have a broken wing, type of thing.
( look we're sOo hurting ... we can't do the job)
... when you'll notice that is.

Curious about what they are doing the other times, like counting up and spending our taxes?

Are they inept in that also ?

...Or we don't need your vote or don't care about your vote or want it.

Takes ONE person to drive to your neighborhood and open up a box shovel some envelopes into a bag at 12:01am and drop them off securely ... this is too difficult for these guys ? Have to hope they grasp the use of a key and a lock but ab0ve that fine.

Hell , give a few days off before .Ok two person security, so two.

By: Novalis

Novalis — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:18:14 +0000

By: Mondoman

Mondoman — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:57:51 +0000

Actually, I think going to vote by mail actually *increased* costs because of the extra staff, machinery, and rent for more election office space.

By: joshwest

joshwest — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:10:24 +0000

This is an awful decision. We were opposed to making mail-in voting the only method and the drop box was the only thing that made it OK from our standpoint. Now that option is essentially being taken away. This is a terrible, terrible decision. They need to figure out some other cuts to make. I've written letters to both Dow Constantine and to the election commissioner and I'd encourage others to also express themselves.

By: Huey Dewey Louie

Huey Dewey Louie — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:06:44 +0000

All of the United States are affected by the national economy and some are the 'red' states too. I think the Republicans are terrible at managing things and the constant blabbing about lowering taxes is total BS. Taxes were lowered under Bush and jobs still went to China- so much for reinvesting money here at home.

By: fuzzbeans

fuzzbeans — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:28:02 +0000

Whoa, I didn't realize that Tim Eyeman was a D.

By: fuzzbeans

fuzzbeans — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:26:39 +0000

And remember, the last election when the box was full? If you have to empty it a few times, that adds to the cost. Or pay to change the box itself.

Yes, annoying, but when the tax base gets eaten away through initiative meddling, this is the kind of fall0ut us working- and middle-class folks see. Just think what the poor folks suffer.

By: fuzzbeans

fuzzbeans — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:24:40 +0000

The problem is that too many people here believe in direct democracy. We shouldn't have to have general elections for school funding and the like. But then you have the Tim Eyemans who rip out all the funding that comes through the legislature.

We live in a republic so that we can have specialists who are focused on these issues (i.e., legislators) but then we get in the way with initiatives.

By: sdrake1958

sdrake1958 — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:32:51 +0000

People in this freaking area get just what they deserve. Just f-ing keep pulling that “D” lever jackasses. DMV's are gone. Libraries are constantly used as leverage. This GD state is 2.6 or more billion in debt. And some here blame Republicans? WTF? In all this diversity name any running anything? Democrats are all about control. They just love all of this bitching and moaning as it gives 'em yet more ideas to “fix things”. The more a government does for you the more it does TO you. I could give a bleep about this. I'm a rugged individual that can handle what they dish. Freaking whiners.

By: kim

kim — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:10:19 +0000

while continuing to line their (exec's) pockets so to speak.

By: gobigblue

gobigblue — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:04:27 +0000

right…and that someone told KCE to find ways to cut KCE's costs, which they did, without compromising KCE's purpose…

By: gobigblue

gobigblue — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:47:37 +0000

Poll Tax?

Ridiculous. A poll tax is something that is widely recognized a method used historically to disenfranchise the poor and minorities by making it more difficult for them to be able to vote.

Switching to an all-mail ballot system and now eliminating drop boxes means that all you have to do is drop your ballot in a mailbox, or even just leave it in your own mailbox for the mailman to pick up when he delivers your mail to your house.

No longer is one required to get to a polling station, which for some might require taking time off from work and losing wages or having to find and pay for transportation.

Making it easier for people to vote is completely contradictory to the concept of a poll tax.

And BTW, poll taxes are something that is pretty much universally associated with conservative political parties.

By: kim

kim — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:55:38 +0000

who sends the directive to kce? that's how i read it. someone is above kce.

By: bmvaughn

bmvaughn — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:46:10 +0000

Our county is getting dangerously close to re-enacting a modern day Poll Tax.

By: Idle Activist

Idle Activist — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:45:10 +0000

This is Seattle, you can't break wind here without putting it to a vote so every idiotic voice can be heard.

By: onederfullone

onederfullone — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:39:55 +0000

lol, so, what would you recognize as a contribution then?
Sometimes the best thing one can do is to get squarely in the way.
Especially now.
To gobigblue, I get it. This just so happens to be isolated.
Nothing to do with amputated feet, or hiking trails.

By: Bjorn Toobiewild

Bjorn Toobiewild — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:18:51 +0000

Isn't next Tuesday Feb 2nd?

By: Bjorn Toobiewild

Bjorn Toobiewild — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:13:33 +0000

Don’t you get the feeling that Republicans are just obstructionists with nothing positive to add to society?

By: gobigblue

gobigblue — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:33:53 +0000

"this, and other all too public 'takings' will encourage passage of the next tax proposal"

So you're saying that when a government organization cuts services to help cut costs that voters will then be more likely to vote yes on a tax increase? Huh?

Remember, we're talking about the King County Elections department, not King County as a whole. KCE was only asked to look for ways to reduce *their department's* cost of operations.

They weren't asked to, nor would they even have the power to impose cost cutting measures in any other King County department or division. They run elections, period. Eliminating polling stations cut costs so it makes perfect sense that eliminating drop boxes would also cut costs.

Instead of criticizing an organization that has succesffully reduced their operating costs without adversely impacting their overall purpose and mission (the electoral process), why don't you propose some ways that they could save more money? Not King County as a whole, just the King County Elections department which is who this is about.