H-2072.1  _______________________________________________

 

                    SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1540

          _______________________________________________

 

State of Washington      56th Legislature     1999 Regular Session

 

By House Committee on State Government (originally sponsored by Representatives D. Schmidt and Romero)

 

Read first time 02/24/1999.  Referred to Committee on .

Requiring written election procedures.


    AN ACT Relating to elections; and adding a new section to chapter 29.04 RCW.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

 

    NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 29.04 RCW to read as follows:

    (1) Each county auditor shall develop written election procedures for the county.  The written procedures must be organized clearly and written using text that is easily understood.  The written procedures shall be in electronic format and available to the public on the Internet.  A physical copy of the written procedures may be provided to members of the public at cost.

    The secretary of state shall assist in the preparation of these written procedures by providing model written procedures describing general election procedures.

    (2) The written procedures will describe general election procedures as well as election procedures unique to the county, including:

    (a) A discussion of different types of ballots, including absentee ballots, special absentee ballots, mail ballots, ballots cast at polling places, challenged ballots, and how these ballots are processed and tabulated;

    (b) A discussion of any electronic vote tallying systems that may be used by the county and how the systems are tested;

    (c) How the registration of a voter may be challenged;

    (d) A discussion of the county canvassing board and how election results are canvassed and certified;

    (e) A discussion of write-in voting and the tallying of write-in votes;

    (f) The circumstances and procedures when a true duplicate copy of a ballot will be made;

    (g) A discussion of observers appointed by major political parties;

    (h) A discussion of the circumstances and procedures for making appeals to the canvassing board;

    (i) A discussion of the recount of votes; and

    (j) Other matters specified by the secretary of state.

 


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