Bill to make prepaid postage on return ballot envelopes permanent sails out of Senate

A bill that would make pre­paid postage on return bal­lot envelopes a per­ma­nent vot­ing reform in Wash­ing­ton State has cleared the Senate.

“This bill is a huge step for­ward in mak­ing Wash­ing­ton elec­tions fair­er and more acces­si­ble for every­one in the state,” said prime spon­sor Joe Nguyen (D‑34th Dis­trict: West Seat­tle, Vashon). “For most peo­ple, the idea that you would have to pay to return your bal­lot, even if that only means a stamp, just doesn’t sit right. Pass­ing this leg­is­la­tion removes that ques­tion and brings every­one to the table.”

Before last year’s midterms, bal­lot return envelopes sent out by coun­ty elec­tions offi­cials instruct­ed vot­ers to place a stamp on the envelope.

After King Coun­ty decid­ed to make pre­paid postage uni­ver­sal with­in its juris­dic­tion, Sec­re­tary of State Kim Wyman and Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee cob­bled togeth­er the mon­ey to ensure the state’s oth­er thir­ty-eight coun­ties could do like­wise.

But that was just a tem­po­rary measure.

Sub­sti­tute Sen­ate Bill 5063 per­ma­nent­ly abol­ish­es what had been tan­ta­mount to a minia­ture poll tax by requir­ing pre­paid postage on bal­lot return envelopes at state expense. Imple­men­ta­tion will cost an esti­mat­ed $4.8 mil­lion dur­ing the 2019–2021 bien­ni­um, accord­ing to a fis­cal note pre­pared by OFM.

It’s a small price to pay, rel­a­tive­ly speak­ing, for the elim­i­na­tion of a seem­ing­ly small but actu­al­ly very cum­ber­some bar­ri­er to vot­ing for many people.

“I think we are stronger as indi­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties when we all have access to vot­ing and are a part of the process,” Sen­a­tor Nguyen said in a news release. “I also want to thank Sen­a­tor Bob Hasegawa for his years cham­pi­oning this leg­is­la­tion. We could not have accom­plished this with­out his lead­er­ship and vision.”

SSB 5063 is one of NPI’s pri­or­i­ty bills for the 2019 leg­isla­tive ses­sion. We are thrilled to see it pass. This leg­is­la­tion is long over­due and we’re glad it’s final­ly arrived. The roll call vote on SSB 5063 was fit­ting­ly rather lopsided:

Roll Call
SB 5063
Bal­lots, pre­paid postage
3rd Read­ing & Final Passage
3/5/2019

Yeas: 42; Nays: 3; Excused: 4

Vot­ing Yea: Sen­a­tors Bai­ley, Bil­lig, Braun, Brown, Car­lyle, Cleve­land, Darneille, Das, Dhin­gra, For­tu­na­to, Frockt, Hasegawa, Hawkins, Hobbs, Holy, Hunt, Keis­er, King, Kud­er­er, Liias, Lovelett, McCoy, Mul­let, Nguyen, O‘Ban, Palum­bo, Ped­er­sen, Ran­dall, Rivers, Rolfes, Sal­daña, Salomon, Schoesler, Short, Takko, Van De Wege, Wag­oner, War­nick, Well­man, Wil­son (Claire), Wil­son (Lyn­da), Zeiger

Vot­ing Nay: Sen­a­tors Erick­sen, Hon­ey­ford, Padden

Excused: Sen­a­tors Beck­er, Con­way, Shel­don, Walsh

Three Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors vot­ed against the bill: Trump admir­er and Eyman bud­dy Doug Erick­sen, Jim Hon­ey­ford, and Mike Pad­den. Four sen­a­tors did not vote.

SSB 5063 will next be con­sid­ered by the Wash­ing­ton State House.