Voter turnout in Washington was largest in nation

[eridani]

Well, so much for the notion that requiring ballots to be returned by, instead of postmarked by, Election Day increases turnout. Basic logic implies the opposite, which has now been confirmed by actual data.

http://mynorthwest.com/11/2145928/Voter-turnout-in-Washington-was-largest-in-nation

Secretary of State Sam Reed certified the election results on Wednesday, and also shared an impressive number.
Voter turnout in Washington reached 81 percent -- the highest voter turnout nationwide.

[Upton]

1. That's odd..

Final figures released Wednesday by Secretary of State Kate Brown show that about 83 percent of Oregon’s 2.2 million registered voters returned ballots in the Nov. 6 election.

The 82.8 percent total was slightly less than the 85.7 percent recorded in 2008, and 86.5 percent in 2004 — which was identical to Oregon’s high-water mark of 1960.

Brown provided the statistics as she certified the results, 30 days after the election.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20121206/NEWS/312060024/Voter-turnout-numbers-released?odyssey=nav|head

You'll notice in the comment section of the My Northwest story you linked to, some mention is made of Oregon's percentage also..

Look, no matter what the truth is, both states vote in high numbers due to mail in voting. It's far more convenient to have the ballots returned by election day rather than have them trickling in over the next week...

I don't wish to rehash the argument we had over this a few weeks ago. However, I'm still waiting for you to provide even one example from the state of Oregon demonstrating how their election day deadline has cost the Democratic party there..

[eridani]

3. That is utter tripe

Neither OR or WA have gotten anywhere near caught up with signature validation by Election Day. Therefore it matters not the slightest whether the extra ballots arrive on Election Day or the day after. Both states report results on election night based on 60% of the votes being counted. WA is more convenient for VOTERS, and what is convenient for voters ought to rule, period. It's also cheaper.

WA is superior in every way, valuing maximum enfranchisement and accuracy over speed. The King County elections department refuses to use the electronic signature validation system used in OR, because they have found it to be unacceptably inaccurate. WA State law requires that voters whose signatures are rejected be notified by snail mail once, and by phone or email twice. Processing resubmitted signatures takes more time and enfranchises more people. Does OR bother doing this? Can you even find out if your ballot has been accepted for counting there?

Not sure if OR is a voter intent state, but WA sure is. This also adds processing time, as ballots not machine readable are read by actual people and corrected for counting.

King County introduced a new ballot scanning system in 2009, intending that the scans be used for ballot correction. They found that some scans were too faint to read voter intent accurately, so they went back to looking at the actual ballots (though they could still enter results on the computer system instead of manually duplicating the ballots).

[mcgarry50]

2. stoners

thats because most of us are stoners. ha ha good job washington and oregon.