{"id":6982,"date":"2012-01-07T16:03:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-08T00:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiken.wpengine.com\/news\/secretary-of-state-sam-reed-asks-lawmaker-to-trim-election-costs\/"},"modified":"2016-10-23T16:10:35","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T23:10:35","slug":"secretary-of-state-sam-reed-asks-lawmaker-to-trim-election-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/secretary-of-state-sam-reed-asks-lawmaker-to-trim-election-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Secretary of State Sam Reed asks lawmaker to trim election costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p>In an effort to save money and make the elections process more efficient during these tight budget times,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sos.wa.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Secretary of State Sam Reed<\/a> is asking the Legislature to lower the cost of producing the statewide  Voters\u2019 Pamphlet, eliminate the primary for judicial races with fewer  than three candidates, and implement other ideas to reduce elections  costs for the state and counties.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>A second bill in Reed\u2019s modest legislative package aims to reduce the  backlog of out-of-state research requests for the State Library\u2019s small  research staff. The State Library is a division of the Office of  Secretary of State. The third measure in the package would allow  participants in the Address Confidentiality Program, which is also run  by the agency, to register in a domestic partnership confidentially.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Making elections less costly and more efficient<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Reed said the centerpiece of his elections cost-savings legislation  is allowing the full text of ballot measures to be placed online for  free on the Secretary of State\u2019s website instead of the printed Voters\u2019  Pamphlet, which is produced by Reed\u2019s Elections Division.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>The Secretary of State is required by the Washington Constitution to  send the Voters\u2019 Pamphlet to all 3 million Washington households.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p><span>\u201cIt is very costly to produce and print the Voters\u2019 Pamphlet every year, especially when there are one or more initiatives or <span>referenda<\/span> on the ballot,\u201d Reed said. \u201cThe entire text for Referendum 71 consumed  33 pages in the Voters\u2019 Pamphlet three years ago. That\u2019s a lot of pages  devoted to a ballot measure, and we often have three or four measures  every year.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>\u201cWhen you consider that few people bother to read the entire text of a  ballot measure and how costly it is to include in the printed Voters\u2019  Pamphlet, it makes sense to just put the text of a ballot measure  online. If people want read the entire text, it will be accessible on  their computer or hand-held device,\u201d added Reed, the state\u2019s top  elections officer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Providing a measure\u2019s text online instead of in the printed Voters\u2019 Pamphlet would save about $364,000 a year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Reed\u2019s elections cost reduction legislation also would:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Repeal the requirement to hold a primary election for judicial  races when only one or two candidates have filed. That would save more  than $1 million about every four years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Repeal the requirement to provide County Auditors with printed  versions of elections laws and instead require that the laws be posted  on the Secretary of State\u2019s website. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Reduce the paperwork for processing initiative filings by allowing  initiative sponsors to file the measure electronically and repealing  the requirement to notify initiative sponsors and House and Senate  administration by mail<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Clarify that Washington voter registration information can be  compared with information in other states to identify voters who are  registered in another state and\/or voting in another state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><p>\u201cMy office and I have made it a high priority to ensure the integrity  of elections in our state. That\u2019s why we already share some voter  registration information with other states and the PEW Research Center  to avoid voter duplication. This part of the bill helps make  Washington\u2019s elections system even stronger,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>The elections savings and efficiencies bill will be introduced next week. The 60-day legislative session begins January 9.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Helping reduce State Library\u2019s out-of-state research requests<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p><span>House Bill 2222 (prime-sponsored by Rep. Mary Helen Roberts) and Senate Bill 6047 (prime-sponsored by Sen.\u00a0<span>Maralyn<\/span> Chase)  would authorize the State Library to charge for research at the State  Library requested by a nonresident, to recover the cost of fulfilling  the request.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>\u201cWhile the State Library\u2019s staff level has shrunk in recent years due  to deep budget cuts, research requests, which are mostly from out of  state, have continued to flood in. The bill would allow more time for  library staff to focus on in-state questions and research requests, and  for the State Library to add more staff with the money raised,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p><span>ACP <span>enrollees<\/span> who register as a domestic partner<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>This legislation would allow someone who is enrolled in the <a href=\"http:\/\/sos.wa.gov\/acp\/\" target=\"_blank\">Address Confidentiality Program <\/a>to  register a domestic partnership confidentially, for his or her safety.  The domestic partnership registry is administered by the Office of  Secretary of State\u2019s Corporation and Charities Division. The bill is  expected to be introduced next week.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p><span>\u201cUnder current state law, people who are  enrolled in the ACP can vote or get married confidentially. This bill  would allow someone in the ACP to register in a domestic partnership  confidentially so their safety <span>isn\u2019t<\/span> compromised,\u201d Reed said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Established in 1991, the ACP\u2019s goal is to keep crime victims safe. It  helps participants keep their new location secret by providing a  substitute address they can use instead. It is designed to prevent  offenders from using the state\u2019s public records to locate their victims  and cause further harm. The ACP is available to survivors of domestic  violence, sexual assault, trafficking, and\/or stalking, and certain  criminal justice employees who have been targets of threats or  harassment on the job or due to the job.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By not printing full ballot measure text in Voters Pamphlet would save hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-6982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6982"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6982"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}