Voters may need ID

Washington voters would have to present identification when they show up at the polls if a special elections reform task force has its way. But they wouldn’t necessarily have to show any identification to register to vote.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, task force chairman, said showing identification before getting a ballot probably wouldn’t upset people these days. “In the post-9/11 world, people are so used to showing their ID,” he said.

If they didn’t have identification when they arrived at the polls, they would be allowed to cast provisional ballots, which would be checked for a valid signature against the county’s voter records. If the signature matched, the ballot would be counted.

That’s one of the proposals the task force has recommended to the Legislature after spending a month holding public hearings around the state. The task force was set up after the 2004 governor’s race, which went into two recounts and flip-flopped the winner from Republican Dino Rossi to Democrat Christine Gregoire.

Gregoire won by 129 votes out of 2.9 million cast, and Republicans have a legal challenge to her victory based on allegations that more than 129 people voted improperly or weren’t legally entitled to cast ballots.

During the hearing last month in Spokane, several people said they had doubts about ballot security because voters don’t have to offer any proof of who they are. That’s likely to change by 2006, based on bills before the Legislature, Reed said.

Others at the hearing said they were concerned that would-be voters don’t have to prove residence or citizenship when registering.

But requiring identification that proves residence or citizenship before a person registers might anger some people, Reed said Thursday.

“It’s a very touchy issue for a long time,” he said. “There can be challenges of intimidation and discrimination.”

The number of noncitizens and nonresidents who register to vote is thought to be extremely small, he added. “The perception of the public far exceeds the reality of the problem.”

The task force is also recommending a primary that is at least four weeks earlier than the third Tuesday of September, the schedule under current law. That would put it in August – timing that some people at the Spokane hearing criticized for being right in the middle of summer vacation.

Reed said he would prefer a primary in June, but legislators favor August. The summer date might not be such a big problem in an era when the majority of the state votes by mail-in ballot, he added.