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Sunday, October 5, 2008

Registration Consternation

posted by on October 5 at 11:59 AM

The deadline to register to vote in Washington has passed—except for “new Washington residents” and/or “voters not currently registered in Washington” (this page says both, separately), who have until October 20th to register in person at the King County Elections Department, conveniently located in Renton.

Their hours are weekdays 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m., except for October 18th and 20th, when they’ll have “extended office hours 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.” Please note that 8:30 a.m. is actually earlier than 9 a.m., and likewise 3 p.m. is not what you would call an extension vis-a-vis 4:30 p.m.

Uncovering this wealth of information—including (presumably) wrong office hours and (not) exactly who the hell can register through the 20th of this month—took visiting a great many different pages on both kingcounty.gov (motto: “Providing efficient, effective and innovative service”) and the website for the Washington Secretary of State, which as of right now reports: “Online, mail-in voter registration deadline just days away / 10-01-2008.” Secretary of State Sam Reed is also “‘relieved and delighted’ that King County Superior Court has refused to halt the printing and use of General Election ballots that use ‘GOP’ as gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi’s party preference.” Thanks, Sam!

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RSS icon Comments

1

Where does it say there are extended hours on October 20? I only see a listing for extended hours on Saturday, October 18--a day the office would not ordinarily be open.

Posted by Brendan | October 5, 2008 1:40 PM
2

Yes, I was going to point out what Brendan did.

Having open hours on a weekend (when you are normally closed) is an extension of hours, even if it's not the same amount as the place is open on a weekday.

Also http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/calendar_list.aspx?y=2008 lists these:

10/4/2008
Last day for mail in and online voter registrations and transfers for the November 4 General Election (RCW 29A.08.140)

10/5/2008
Overseas and military ballots mailed for the November 4 General Election (RCW 29A.40.070)

10/15/2008
Absentee ballots available for November 4 General Election (RCW 29A.40.070)

10/17/2008
Absentee ballots mailed for November 4 General Election (RCW 29A.40.070)

10/20/2008
Last day of in-person registration for voters not currently registered in Washington State for the November 4 General Election (RCW 29A.08.145)

Posted by stinkbug | October 5, 2008 1:51 PM
3

Curse you, stinkbug! You're foiling my and Sam Reed's plot to throw the election to Rossi by hopelessly confusing voters! Foiled again! *slinks off to make a phone call to Texas*

Posted by Seajay | October 5, 2008 2:05 PM
4

Yeah, usually the office is closed on Saturday.

Posted by la | October 5, 2008 2:39 PM
5

Um, if hte notion is there's an earlier deadline for changing your address when you were previously registered (the 4th) than there is for registering the first time (the 20th) that makes no sense at all.

Obviously what makes sense is one deadline and having it be the same. And not having to go on on line discussion blogs and research rcw's to find out what it is.

Govt is oft not user friendly, then you see all these folks defending the clunkiness of how they operate....

Posted by PC | October 5, 2008 7:48 PM

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