County Got 1,100 Overseas Absentee Ballots U.S. Citizens In Other Countries Went To Great Lengths To Get Votes In On Time

Tue., Nov. 21, 2000

By Jim Camden jimc@spokesman.com (509) 879-7461

Spokane County received more than 1,100 ballots from military personnel and other government workers overseas.

Only three are being rejected for being mailed too late. However, nearly three dozen were rejected because they came from men and women who either aren’t registered to vote in Spokane County, or hadn’t filed a request to vote absentee, County Auditor Vicky Dalton said.

Some overseas voters went to great lengths to make sure their ballots arrived on time, such as asking someone traveling to the United States to mail the ballot for them.

“It’s just amazing what people will go through to vote,” Dalton said.

Spokane and other Washington counties will finish processing absentee ballots this week and certify their final totals in all races Wednesday. Although the presidential race is settled in the state, the U.S. Senate race is still in doubt and a few other races could be decided by those ballots.

For the Nov. 7 election, Spokane County sent 1,739 ballots to registered voters who live overseas, and received 1,186 back.

Washington law doesn’t require the ballots of servicemen and women to be postmarked, Dalton said. Instead, it provides a special postage-paid envelope for the ballot, which must be signed and dated by the voter.

Overseas voters from Washington are at a disadvantage compared with voters from most other states. Washington’s primary in mid-September must be counted and certified before the general election ballot can be printed. This year, the general election ballot was mailed Oct. 18 - leaving only 20 days for ballots to reach foreign addresses, be marked and put in the return mail.

Military and government workers overseas can also receive “federal write-in ballots,” paper ballots with only the presidential and congressional races on them, about a month before the election.

One Spokane resident living in Cameroon had friends who were coming to the United States in October and asked them to mail his ballot from a U.S. post office, Dalton said.

“It arrived, and it was on time,” she said.

As long as an envelope was signed before Nov. 7 and it arrives by today, a ballot will be counted - provided the person is registered to vote by absentee ballot in Spokane County. This year, 34 federal write-in ballots have been rejected because the sender isn’t registered in Spokane County.

“We’d prefer to count their ballots if there’s any way we can,” Dalton said.

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