Wash­ing­ton is one step clos­er to elim­i­nat­ing anoth­er bar­ri­er to vot­ing tonight thanks to the state Sen­ate’s approval of a bill that allows in-per­son vot­er reg­is­tra­tion until 8 PM on Elec­tion Night as well as mov­ing the dead­line for reg­is­ter­ing online or by mail much clos­er to the dead­line for return­ing ballots.

By a vote of twen­ty-nine to twen­ty, the Sen­ate has sent to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives SSB 6021, prime spon­sored by Pat­ty Kud­er­er (D‑48th Dis­trict: Red­mond, Kirk­land, Belle­vue, Clyde Hill). Four Repub­li­cans joined all twen­ty-five Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors to back the leg­is­la­tion on final passage.

“Par­tic­i­pa­tion in our elec­tions has been steadi­ly declin­ing in our state and around the coun­try for decades now. It’s time we take seri­ous action to help vot­ers achieve the rep­re­sen­ta­tion they deserve by remov­ing bar­ri­ers and increas­ing access,” said Kud­er­er in a state­ment. “The core goal of same-day reg­is­tra­tion is to increase turnout, but this is also about restor­ing faith in our civic institutions.”

“This bill will ensure that every eli­gi­ble vot­er who wish­es to make their voice heard will not be turned away at the door because an out­dat­ed dead­line was missed.”

“The voice of the peo­ple, the voic­es of indi­vid­u­als, pro­vide the lifeblood of our democ­ra­cy. I am proud to stand with my Sen­ate col­leagues today as we show our con­stituents and the coun­try the path to fair­er and more inclu­sive elections.”

The Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus’ press release notes that same-day vot­er reg­is­tra­tion has been shown to lead to an increase in turnout. In fact, the five states that saw the high­est turnout in the Novem­ber 2016 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion (as a per­cent­age) all have same day vot­er reg­is­tra­tion laws on their books.

SSB 6021 has an effec­tive date of June 20th, 2019, so it will not be in place for this year’s midterm elec­tions. But as of next year’s Top Two and gen­er­al elec­tions, it will be pos­si­ble to reg­is­ter online or by mail as late as eight days before the dead­line, and in per­son reg­is­tra­tions will be allowed up until 8 PM on Elec­tion Night.

Same-day reg­is­tra­tion is an NPI 2018 leg­isla­tive pri­or­i­ty, and we’re absolute­ly thrilled to see it embraced by the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate tonight.

NPI is very grate­ful to the four Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors who chose to say yes to strength­en­ing our democ­ra­cy and mak­ing it eas­i­er to vote: Joe Fain, Brad Hawkins, Mark Milos­cia, and Mau­reen Walsh. Their aye votes are not­ed and appreciated.

The full roll call was as follows.

Roll Call
SSB 6021
Vot­er reg­is­tra­tion period
3rd Read­ing & Final Passage
1/17/2018

Yeas: 29; Nays: 20

Vot­ing Yea: Sen­a­tors Bil­lig, Car­lyle, Chase, Cleve­land, Con­way, Darneille, Dhin­gra, Fain, Frockt, Hasegawa, Hawkins, Hobbs, Hunt, Keis­er, Kud­er­er, Liias, McCoy, Milos­cia, Mul­let, Nel­son, Palum­bo, Ped­er­sen, Ranker, Rolfes, Sal­daña, Takko, Van De Wege, Walsh, Wellman

Vot­ing Nay: Sen­a­tors Angel, Bai­ley, Baum­gart­ner, Beck­er, Braun, Brown, Erick­sen, For­tu­na­to, Hon­ey­ford, King, O‘Ban, Pad­den, Rivers, Schoesler, Shel­don, Short, Wag­oner, War­nick, Wil­son, Zeiger

SSB 6021 now heads to the House, where sim­i­lar leg­is­la­tion has been intro­duced and is await­ing action by that cham­ber’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic majority.