‘Ballot box at the end of every driveway’: King County Council OKs postage-paid ballot envelopes

Seven years after our state went to voting by mail, our county is removing the need for you to buy a stamp for your ballot. The announcement from the King County Council this afternoon:

No Stamp? No Problem! The Metropolitan King County Council today approved legislation allowing the Department of Elections to send voters postage-paid envelopes to return their ballots in this year’s primary and general elections.

“Increasing accessibility to free and fair democratic elections is central to all of our civic institutions,” Said Councilmember Dave Upthegrove, Chair of the Council’s Budget Committee and prime sponsor of the legislation. “This measure puts a ballot box at the end of every driveway, and I’m excited to be a part of its passage.”

“Voting is the foundation of our democracy. By eliminating the postage ‘poll tax’, King County is taking an important step to dismantle a barrier that keeps some from exercising their right to vote,” said Councilmember Rod Dembowski, co-sponsor of the ordinance.

Washington became a vote-by-mail state in 2011. While the Council and King County Elections worked to increase the number of ballot drop boxes available to voters throughout the county, approximately half of the ballots received are still sent by mail. Prior to today’s action all voters were personally required to place postage on their ballot.

In prior elections, when a voter forgot to place on stamp on a ballot, some post offices would send the ballot to King County regardless, but would charge the county $1.70—more than three times the current postage rate. Other post offices would not forward the ballot at all.

“We should be doing everything in our power to improve access to democracy countywide and I am confident that prepaid postage will go a long way towards doing just that by breaking down barriers to participation,” said Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles, co-sponsor of the ordinance. “I’m confident that our action today will result in prepaid postage on ballots being implemented statewide.”

“Prepaid postage has been proven to increase voting in a cost-effective way,” Said King County Council Vice Chair Claudia Balducci. “I commend our King County Elections Director for continually looking for ways to improve voter participation in our elections, which is so fundamental to our democratic form of self-government.”

The measure is widely expected to increase voter access and participation. Elections conducted a pilot project this winter, sending 65,000 voters in Shoreline and Maple Valley prepaid return envelopes. The percentage of total ballots returned by mail during the pilot was 74-percent. This was a vast increase compared to 43-percent participation in the 2016 General Election.

The legislation now allows election officials to send prepaid return envelopes to all voters, but with the US Postal Service charging King County a rate of 50 cents for those returned by mail. Wise and county election officials estimate a 10 percent increase in the number of ballots returned by mail rather than drop boxes with prepaid postage.

The legislation passed Council with a 7-2 vote. In support of the measure were Councilmembers Upthegrove, Dembowski, Kohl-Welles, Balducci, Gossett, McDermott and von Reichbauer. Councilmembers Dunn and Lambert voted in opposition.

Ours would be the first in the state to provide postage-paid ballot envelopes.

21 Replies to "'Ballot box at the end of every driveway': King County Council OKs postage-paid ballot envelopes"

  • MJ May 7, 2018 (5:53 pm)

    Are the drop boxes going to be eliminated?  It would make sense since with postage paid ballots all mail boxes are in essence drop boxes

    • WSB May 7, 2018 (5:56 pm)

      Good question but I don’t believe so. They save a few bucks and there are relatively few of them … just one for West Seattle, for example.

  • Dale May 7, 2018 (7:23 pm)

    Didn’t know there is only one ballot drop box in West Seattle.  The one at the High Point library is all?  There is one at the South Park library too.  Hope there is a plan to mitigate the costs of the “no stamp” plan.  It is not that hard to vote.  I miss polling places.

    • WSB May 7, 2018 (7:35 pm)

      Me too. High Point is it for West Seattle; there’s also one at the White Center Library.

    • AMD May 7, 2018 (10:02 pm)

      My polling place was always a church and I had mixed feelings about that.

      But SO happy to see the postage-paid ballot envelopes!  I really hope this helps get even more people to vote.  

  • Millie May 7, 2018 (10:32 pm)

    Can’t get the picture out of my mind of seeing  people standing in lines, for hours,  in other countries waiting to vote.   Sad, that the cost of a stamp has prevented people from voting.  What happens if there is no measurable improvement in voter turnout?  What is the next step?  Individual guidance/assistance?  Democracy does take work!   We shouldn’t treat it so lightly.

  • Bill May 7, 2018 (11:06 pm)

    Really feel sorry for all these people that have it so dam hard to vote — that is a crock! Nobody has to invest any time, money or thought anymore – convenience voting — why don’t you just let the politicians vote for you?

    • Felix Grounds May 8, 2018 (7:59 am)

      Nobody should have to invest money into the process of casting a ballot…because “poll tax”…

      However, time and thought are required, and once you’ve ivested that and filled out your ballot, the process of getting your ballot where it needs to go should be streamlined, efficient, equal and free to everybody…not just those who can afford to take time out of a Tuesday to stand in line at a polling place.

       This policy should be implemented state wide.

      Hhrruumph.

    • Jort May 8, 2018 (10:44 pm)

      I’m sorry that your feelings are so hurt by making it easier for people to vote.

      I wonder what, specifically, your criteria would be for the “right” kind of vote to be cast? In what ways, specifically, would you like to make it more inconvenient for citizens to participate in their democracy? 

       I would love to hear your thoughtful answers.

  • Aaron May 7, 2018 (11:48 pm)

    Just using my mailbox as the benchmark, at the current rate of miss-delivered mail, I think this may be a terrible idea.

  • Dale May 8, 2018 (7:08 am)

    Not politically correct, but I’d prefer that citizens that cannot  pull it together enough to vote under our current system don’t vote.

    • WSB May 8, 2018 (8:44 am)

      I don’t know if this is really going to make a difference but to address one key point, no one should have to pay to vote, even the cost of a stamp.

      • melissa May 8, 2018 (9:27 am)

        Thank you, WSB. Yes. There should be no barriers to voting. Now if we could just do something about those daytime presidential caucuses that exclude working people who can’t take time off. 

        • KBear May 8, 2018 (11:15 am)

          Which “daytime” presidential caucuses were you excluded from, Melissa? The ones on SATURDAYS? I realize some people do work on Saturdays, but other people work evenings, too. They have to choose a time when volunteers are available to run the caucus as well. 

          • melissa May 8, 2018 (2:10 pm)

            Hey, KBear. I didn’t say that I was excluded, did I? I am talking about working people who work multiple jobs or weekends and can’t take unpaid time off. We don’t have primary voting here, which is the lowest barrier, and I think we should. Why do you think caucuses are better?

  • Boss May 8, 2018 (10:44 am)

    USPS has no obligation to pick up your outgoing mail you leave in your mailbox. Make sure to always drop your ballot in a collection box or post office.

  • anonyme May 8, 2018 (11:33 am)

    Sounds like a great idea, and a fair one – but how much will my property tax be raised this time?  I’d rather just pay for the stamp, and be able to stay in my house eating dog food.

  • Kathy May 8, 2018 (2:17 pm)

    I hated that 2016 Primary Caucus. I was out numbered by people who seriously thought that left wing policies would actually be supported in an American general election . I understand if you love socialist policies, but you need to be a little more savvy and realistic about how to further those policies when voting. Then we also had a paper ballot afterward (which didn’t count) with much higher participation which produced the opposite result. I don’t get the sense of that. Could we say that the people that couldn’t make it to the primary caucus were disenfranchised? The result was that people were disgruntled in the general because they thought their candidate had a lot more support than he actually had. Wait a minute did I just rehash the 2016 election? Sorry about that.

    • Jon Wright May 8, 2018 (2:59 pm)

      Up until 2016, I’m sure people were skeptical that right wing policies would actually be supported in an American general election, too.

    • Nolan May 8, 2018 (3:44 pm)

      Please, tell us more about how Clinton’s “savvy and realistic” approach won her the presidency.

      It turns out that, when millions of people are suffering in poverty and poor economies, and your only response is “nah, it’s fine”, you lose elections. We knew that, you didn’t, it was proven out in the election, and yet here you are having learned absolutely nothing from it.

    • Mickymse May 15, 2018 (2:39 pm)

      NO ONE was “disenfranchised” in the 2016 Primary in Washington State. Whether or not the Democratic Party Caucuses are a good idea, or as inclusive as they could be… there is no right to participate. The caucuses are about a private political party choosing its nominee for office. If you want to get involved in the Party and share your thoughts on who that should be — great! Otherwise, you don’t get to choose who represents a club that you’re not a part of. Get involved or start your own club! I’m not actually trying to be glib. I think the Party could do much more to be inclusive and welcoming to all. I’m just pointing out that you literally do not have the right to choose the nominee on the ballot. That’s not actually part of your voting rights.

Sorry, comment time is over.