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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Group cites underage voting

Richard Roesler Staff writer

OLYMPIA – A conservative group has filed a complaint with Washington’s top election official, saying it has found more than 16,000 cases of teenagers registering to vote before they were legally eligible.

In a small number of those cases, Evergreen Freedom Foundation researcher Robert Edelman says, the teens voted illegally before they turned 18. In the past eight years, he said, the group’s search of voter data suggests that 108 young people wrongly voted on 127 ballots. Four of those ballots, he said, were in this year’s presidential primary.

“We want young people to vote, of course,” when they’re eligible, said Jonathan Bechtle, an attorney for the group.

“Right now they’re slipping through the net, and we don’t want them to get into trouble.”

Under Washington law, 17-year-olds can register to vote if they’ll be 18 by the next election. But while most voters focus mainly on November, the “next election” could be sooner than they think. It’s common for school levies, for example, to go to the ballot in springtime.

A spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, who oversees elections in Washington, said a screening system enacted by county election officials in 2006 has dramatically reduced the problem. State election workers found no evidence of underage voting last year, spokesman David Ammons said. He said the screening consists of age-checking software and training for local election staffs.

“The counties are aware now that there is an issue,” he said.

Even with a “massive influx” of teenagers registering this year, Ammons said, the state has found only four cases – in Whitman, Stevens, King and Thurston counties – in which questionable votes were cast. Nick Handy, the state elections director, said his office has a team working on tougher safeguards against underage voting.

Handy said the state also has found 31 registrations of 17-year-olds who will not be 18 by the August primary, although all will be 18 by Election Day on Nov. 4.

The quest to scrub Washington’s voter rolls of dead, illegal and underage voters took on a much higher profile with the governor’s race in 2004.

After two recounts and a court fight over allegations of improper voting, Gov. Chris Gregoire beat Republican Dino Rossi by 133 votes.

The two are facing off again this year.

Bechtle, citing flawed county registration data, said he’s skeptical that the problem is as small as the secretary of state’s office suggests.

“They can try to say that, but they can’t really say that with any confidence,” he said.