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Re: Registration Reminder

This post from yesterday brought the following clarification from King County Elections:

Hi Eli,

I wanted to provide some clarification in response to your recent posting.

Election officials don’t remove voters’ registrations simply because they haven’t voted. Voters are kept on “active” status until we hear from them or from another county that the voter has re-registered somewhere else, or if we receive a piece of returned mail from their address. If we hear a voter has registered in another county, then we cancel them. If we receive undeliverable mail from a voter, then we put them on “inactive” status. A voter can become active again by calling our office.

The post office will forward ballots as long as voters have a current forwarding order in place, but if we receive any piece of correspondence back at our office as undeliverable, the voter is placed on inactive status. If a voter is inactive, they are given a two- to four-year window in which they can give us their correct information with a simple phone call before the voter’s registration is cancelled. More information on cancelling a registration can be found here.

If a voter’s signature on their absentee ballot packet doesn’t match their signature on file, they will not be removed from the voter rolls. King County Elections will contact the voter and the voter will have until the night before certification (two to three weeks following election day) to resolve their signature issue.

If any of your readers have questions about their voting status, please have them call King County Elections at 206-296-VOTE (8683).

Thanks, Eli.

Megan Coppersmith
King County Elections

Thanks, Megan. And sorry for any confusion, Sloggers. I’ve updated the previous post with a link to this clarification.

Comments (4)

1

So maybe posting e-mail forwards directly to Slog without verification isn't a great idea???

Posted by rjh | September 23, 2008 9:45 AM
2

I gotta say, this "inactive" thing is rather confusing. The elections representative quoted on the Slog says "inactive" folks need to call the King County elections office to become reactivated, but the Secretary of State's Web site says the same thing can be accomplished by updating one's address (which can be done online at My Vote):


What is an “inactive” registration?


If an election-related piece of mail is returned by the post office as undeliverable to the voter at that address, the registration is placed on “inactive” status. A voter who is on inactive status may return to active status at any time by updating his or her address, requesting a ballot, or submitting a new voter registration application.


Posted by Kalakalot | September 23, 2008 9:53 AM
3

#2:


All it takes to "re-activate" a voter is some kind of contact with your county elections office or the Secretary of State's office.

Voters can become active again by updating their information. They can do that over the phone with their own county office, or by changing their address at the Secretary of State's website, or by filling out a new registration form and sending it either to their county or to the state.

Posted by energydelay | September 23, 2008 10:48 AM
4

changing my address online didn't work, but calling king county does seem to have made me active.

Posted by jkjk | September 23, 2008 11:26 AM

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