Evan Smith: County eliminates most ballot drop boxes

By Evan Smith
ShorelineAreaNews politics writer

Voters in the February school election and later elections this year will not be able to drop their ballots for free at the Lake Forest Park Library or other sites around King County.

The County has eliminated all drop boxes except one at the County elections headquarters, currently located in Tukwilla, and at accessible voting stations in Bellevue and at the County administration building in downtown Seattle.

A county elections spokeswoman told me recently that the drop sites around the county had been eliminated for budgetary reasons.

She said that closing the drop sites would save the County about $140,000.
County officials say that they have eliminated all elections functions that would not jeopardize the integrity of the elections process and are not required by State law.

County Councilman Bob Ferguson said that budget restrictions forced the County Council to make the move.

“We’re already making steep cuts in human services,” he told me a few weeks ago.

Other counties had already taken similar actions.

Snohomish County, which had 36 drop sites in 2008, had only six in 2009 and will have the same number this year.

The change will be hard on the many people who vote on Election Day.

In the November election, 20 percent of King County’s voters used the free drop boxes, more than half of them on Election Day.

Now, Election-Day voters will have to mail their ballots at a time and place that will guarantee a postmark that day.