WA Lege Day 44: Cleaning up voting rule?
OLYMPIA -- The House and Senate both have actual floor sessions today, considering some bills that have come out of committees.
Among the first to move is SJR 8205, a possible constitutional amendment that would be on the fall ballot, a technical or "housekeeping" change that, when you think about it, is either amusing or bizarre. It seems the state Constitution has two conflicting residency requirements for voting. Article 6 Section 1 says a voter must live in the state, county and precinct for 30 days before an election to to be allowed to vote. But Section 1A says that in a presidential year, a citizen must reside in the state at least 60 days before the election to vote for president.
It's a problem that stems from changing Section 1 in 1974 to allow for the 18-year-old vote, and not addressing 1A, which had been added in 1966.
Hearings continue this afternoon, with the Senate Ways and Means Committee taking up bills ranging from a limit to the state's debt to new rules for gathering signatures on initiatives to setting up a commission to restructure the state's government.
It is United Food and Commercial Workers Lobbying Day and Have a Heart for Kids Day.
Today's trivia: Who was the greatest president since World War II? Zogby Poll results inside has one answer...see what you think.
|
|
|
Great |
Near Great |
Total |
|
Ronald Reagan |
37% |
20% |
57% |
|
Franklin Roosevelt |
32% |
25% |
57% |
|
John F. Kennedy |
16% |
35% |
51% |
|
Harry Truman |
9% |
35% |
44% |
|
Bill Clinton |
18% |
24% |
42% |
|
Dwight Eisenhower |
10% |
32% |
41% |
|
Barack Obama |
8% |
19% |
27% |
|
George W. Bush |
4% |
17% |
21% |
|
Lyndon Johnson |
5% |
15% |
20% |
|
George H.W. Bush |
3% |
13% |
16% |
|
Jimmy Carter |
4% |
9% |
13% |
|
Richard Nixon |
1% |
8% |
9% |
|
Gerald Ford |
1% |
4% |
5% |
Spin Control quibble: FDR died before the war was over, so how can he be one of the greatest since WWII?
