Whatcom legislator seeks end to Washington’s all-mail voting
State Sen. Doug Ericksen is preparing legislation to return Washington state to in-person voting, require voter ID at the polls and invalidate most absentee ballots that arrive by mail after Election Day.
I heard on the news that a Democratic Senator said, ‘This bill has zero chance of passing.’
Yeah, 0% might even be optimistic. First, Democrats have a trifecta in Washington (House, Senate, and Governor.) Second, this isn’t even one of those things like car tabs where popular opposition (or support) might force the Democrats’ hand. I haven’t seen any polling, so take this with a grain of salt, but all my experience is that people here fucking love all-mail voting.
We love it.
Ericksen is a Trump supporter who is pushing the ‘voter fraud’ narrative for his Dear Leader.
And again, Republicans are pushing the false narrative that there were problems with absentee or mail-in voting. The New York Times has an article (paywall warning) in which they contacted the offices of the top election officials in each state. None reported any serious issues. We have to push back on this bullshit everytime someone brings it up.
In the case of this Washington State legislature, his constituents and his colleagues in the legislature should press him to back up his claims.
I was surprised to here about this. I’ve been in Washington since before we changed to all mail in votes and I don’t recall anyone of either party having a problem with it before. Nor have I heard of any controversies. We love our mail in voting here in Washington State.
Yes, but that was before our transition from a republic to a dictatorship.
The Washington Sec’y of State overseeing the elections is a Republican, widely thought to be doing a fine job, endorsed by liberals and conservatives.
That’s thing; reading the link, he doesn’t pretend to claim there were any voting irregularities in Washington State. Instead he wants to end mail-in voting to prevent the “disarray” in other states. The only disarray I’ve seen is that waiting until election day to count ballots meant that it took a few days to declare a winner. Simple solution, short of ending mail-in voting? Count ballots as they arrive so there is no backlog of ballots to process.
Apparently Ericksen lives right up there within spittin’ distance of Canada. That should be enough to make anyone paranoid. Right?
I’m closer to Canada. 
I voted for Pinky Vargas. I really wish she’d won.
What, are you on Pt. Roberts? The helicopter must really come in handy.
I live 9 miles from Canada. I also live 24 miles from Canada. Who could ask for more than that?
Birch Bay, so four miles directly south of the border.
Where?
Sounds like the north side of Orcas.
I don’t need to ask for more … I already live 7,767 miles from Canada.
There is no political support anywhere for ending mail in voting. Dems like it, Republicans like it. It’s cheaper (especially since no one is interested in spending the money it would take to re-institute mail in voting). But really, Washingtonians hate it when people try to mess with their ballots.
To be fair, there is a small bit of support for moving the deadline from “postmarked by election day” to “arrived by election day.” but not much - it would be a much easier, saner fight.
That said, I’m surprised that he’s got that much support in Whatcom county. They’re typically a left leaning county.
I’d say Bellingham is left-leaning, being a college town. But Whatcom County is very large. Lots of rural people.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of this sort of bushwa since mail-in voting tends to nullify the extensive effort the GOP has put into voter suppression. The rationale (sic) may be something along the lines that voting in person, on one day, was what the Founding Fathers intended — which brings to mind the man who argued against foreign languages being taught in school, because “If English was good enough for the Prophets and Apostles, it’s good enough for me!”
How does he expect the military outside the US to vote?
Do you think he really cares?