Secretary of State Kim Wyman sent the following letter to Governor Inslee on Thursday requesting up to $2 million in emergency funds to pay for statewide pre-paid return ballot postage for the 2018 Primary and General elections.

Dear Governor Jay,

Next week, the Metropolitan King County Council is poised to approve Ordinance No. 2018-0183, a proposal to provide voters in King County with pre-paid postage on their ballot-return envelopes for the 2018 Primary and General elections.

Building upon the “Access to Democracy” legislation passed in the 2018 legislative session, providing pre-paid postage would be one more step towards increasing voter access. I have long supported statewide implementation of this election enhancement.

Our highest priority in elections must be to treat every voter in the state equally. While the King County proposal improves elections access, it also has the following statewide repercussions:

• If King County voters are provided pre-paid postage ballot return envelopes while residents of other counties are not, a new disparity between voters would leave residents of other counties voting under different rules than their King County neighbors.

King County is home to 30 percent of our state’s registered voters. In addition to the statewide U.S. Senate race and potential statewide initiatives this fall, five legislative districts and two congressional districts cross into King County and one or more other counties. In all of these races, King County voters would have enhanced access to the ballot box, thus treating voters differently across the state.

• The media coverage of King County’s proposal will cause voter confusion regarding the availability of pre-paid postage on ballot return envelopes in surrounding counties and across the state.
• Counties as a whole cannot afford to implement pre-paid postage statewide. A number of distressed counties in our state are facing significant budget challenges this year. Residents of these counties should not be treated differently at election time than residents of counties prosperous enough to afford pre-paid postage.

Neither of us wants any Washington resident to be treated unequally. Given the step that King County is poised to take, I ask for your help in granting the same access to the ballot box for every voter in all 39 Washington counties for the 2018 elections.

I officially request emergency state funding authority of up to $2 million to reimburse the costs counties incur to implement pre-paid return ballot postage statewide for the 2018 Primary and General elections. The timing of King County’s proposed action requires this request to be considered an emergency. Counties statewide face imminent deadlines to begin printing their return ballot envelopes for the 2018 fall elections.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. I look forward to working with you to bring fair and equitable election opportunities to all of Washington’s 4.2 million registered voters.

Respectfully,

Kim Wyman
Secretary of State

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