This week’s Q&A is with Sen. Mike Carrell, who I spoke with mostly about SJR 8205, which will remove a provision in the state’s Constitution that has never been enforced — and has been ruled unconstitutional. We also talked about next week’s big Economic and Revenue Forecast, where the state’s top economist is expected to have more bad news for lawmakers. Read all the way through the interview to see what Sen. Carrell has to say about it.

Q: First, what would the SJR do, in your own words?
Carrell: What it will do is eliminate from the state constitution a redundant part which is Article 6, Section 1(A). Article 6, Section 1 says what the qualifications are for a person to vote: You must live in the state, be 18 years of age, you can’t be a criminal — things of that nature. But Article 6, Section 1(A) says if you’ve been a resident of some state outside of Washington and you haven’t been here at least 60 days, then you can only vote for the president and vice president. The U.S. Supreme Court declared that it was unconstitutional to not allow somebody to vote that was of the age and had the other qualifications. But this has remained in our state constitution. I’ve tried for a number of years to convince people of both parties to clean up the constitution by removing this clause, and I finally did convince virtually everyone, so it’s going to a vote of the people.
It’s more a matter of doing some house cleaning to clean up something that was never implemented. It was passed by the people in 1977 and since that time, it has never been in actual effect. We have ignored it, so it is time to get rid of it.
(more…)

Tags: Budget, initiatives, Q&A, Revenue forecast, SJR 8205, supercommittee, voting

Today’s the last day you can register to vote online or by mail if you want to vote in the Aug. 16 primary. (Not excited for this year’s primary? There’s no harm in taking a few minutes now to register for the general election.)

Of course, if you miss the deadline and want to vote in the primary, you’ll still be able to register in-person at your county elections office through Aug. 8.

According to the Secretary of State’s blog, they’ll be shipping primary ballots on July 29.

Tags: Secretary of State, voter registration, voting

If you’re interested in this year’s elections, you won’t want to miss TVW’s live polling show at 7 o’clock tonight: On “TVW Election Special: Voters Talk Taxes,” Stuart Elway and Jessica Gao, host of The Impact, will host a live, one-hour show where voters across Washington will be polled on how they feel about tax issues on next week’s ballot.

The hundreds of participants will be asked about the tax measures during the show, and the results will be broadcast instantly.

The interactive program will show you what hundreds of voters across the state think about taxes.

And:  Two experts will be on set to answer voters questions about taxes.

Don’t miss it — tonight at 7 p.m., live on TVW.

Tags: elections, voting

That’s right: Today is the very last day you can register to vote — and you’ll need to visit your county election office to do so.

Find more info — including the location of your county’s election office — here. Then watch the Mock Election Forum we taped last week in Dayton for more information (yes, it was a forum to help middle- and high-school students decide how to vote in the mock election, but the questions are excellent and the issues are the same that you’ll vote for).

Tags: elections, voting

TVW has partnered with the Secretary of State’s Office to produce a Video Voters’ Guide.

Pick a candidate, click on their name and watch their statement. Right now, all of Sen. Patty Murray’s challengers have videos available — Murray is taping hers this week.

The guide can also be viewed on air up until the Aug. 17 primary.

And, for the most complete primary night coverage, turn to a TVW for a special edition of The Impact. Host Jessica Gao will bring you the latest election results, interview political analysts and candidates, and preview the issues heading into the general election in November.  Don’t miss a special election season edition of The Impact on Tuesday, August 17th starting at 8 p.m.

Tags: video voter guide, voting

First thing’s first: Tomorrow is the deadline for voting. Mail your ballot, hand deliver it … whatever it takes. We have an excellent video voter guide and Q&As with each of the initiative and referendum sponsors and opponents.

Also: Right now on TVW, you can watch the Quality Education Council — the group charged with trying to figure out how to improve Washington’s public schools. Find out more here. And watch now.

Tags: elections, QEC, voting

Today is the deadline for voter registration — if you aren’t already registered. But: You must register in-person in order to be eligible to vote next week.

Where should you go? Your county elections office. Find a map here.

Then watch TVW’s video voter guide to get up-to-speed on the issues:

Tags: deadline, elections, voting

If you want to vote on Nov. 4, you need to be registered by midnight tonight.

How? It’s very easy: First, go here to check whether you are, in fact, registered. Then, if you’re not (or if you need to update your address), go here.

Don’t forget — deadline is midnight tonight (or new voters can register in-person at your county office until Oct. 26). Also: The online registration site was down for a bit this morning, but it’s back up and working now. We’ll let you know if any other failures occur.

And while we’re on the subject of voting, don’t miss TVW’s video voter guide — hear the opponents and supporters speak on issues in their own words.

Tags: elections, voting

Last week, a lawsuit was filed in Washington Supreme Court that alleges the secrecy of ballots is compromised by the bar codes that some counties use.

Their claim: The companies who track the ballots can use the data to find out how exactly how you voted, which is illegal.

The Secretary of State’s Office, however, said that’s bogus: They compared it to tracking numbers on packages that allow people to make sure the package is en route, but not decipher what’s inside the box.

The Supreme Court hasn’t yet decided whether they’ll take the case. Brad Shannon has some great reporting on the issue here, and here’s a story by The Daily World.

Tags: voting

I was surprised to open last week’s edition of The Economist to find this story, which begins with the line: “We in Washington state ‘get our business done.’” (The quote is from Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown.)

The article focuses on how politically moderate this state is and attributes it to the voting system. It’s an interesting perspective — an international magazine’s take on Washington’s politics compared to our neighbor states.

Update: And here’s a blog post by the folks in the Secretary of State’s Office (their blog, From Our Corner, is a must-read) on the same article.

Tags: politics, press, voting