Incoming Secretary of State Kim Wyman makes a good first impression:

Just as we have seen every election cycle, newspaper editorial pages, political reporters and candidates are once again promoting a new requirement that all ballots be received by county elections offices by Election Day in order to count. Our Legislature has considered this more restrictive deadline, but on a bipartisan basis has not adopted this change — correctly, in our view.

Hey... that's just like something I might have written on the call to change the ballot deadline, were I writing for a newspaper that wouldn't let me use the word "fuck." Wyman explains that counting our ballots accurately is more important than counting them fast, and that moving the ballot deadline to received by election day would not fulfill the "expectation that nearly all ballots would be counted by election night." And the transition would almost surely disenfranchise some voters through no fault of their own.

I was never quite sure why out-going Secretary of State Sam Reed was so obsessed with moving the ballot deadline, but regardless, it's good to know that Wyman is squarely on the data-driven side of this issue.

The SECB did not endorse Wyman, but we didn't trash-talk her either. Faced with two "competent, dedicated public servants [who] both display an encyclopedic knowledge of elections procedures," we opted for the Democrat. But we were impressed with Wyman, and remain confident that she will stand apart from her voter-suppressing Republican colleagues in other states.

And now that our newly elected Republican Secretary of State has spoken firmly against moving the ballot deadline, perhaps our state's editorial boards will finally shut the fuck up.