Seatlle, WA: Clear-ballot Reform Signed Into Law

Clear-ballot Reform Signed Into Law
The Seattle Medium

OLYMPIA — A confusing ballot design that may have caused more than 40,000 King County voters to fail to vote on a Tim Eyman initiative last fall won’t be used in Washington State again.

Rep. Scott White’s proposal (HB 2496) to require a clear delineation between where ballot instructions end and voting begins was signed into law today by Gov. Chris Gregoire after passing the House and Senate unanimously.

''Many people warned even before the election that King County voters could overlook Initiative 1033 because of how it was tucked indistinctly beneath the voting instructions on the bottom left side of the ballot,” said White (D-Seattle). “As it turned out, more than 41,000 voters who cast ballots in King County failed to register a vote on the Eyman initiative. You could argue that these voters were essentially disenfranchised by bad ballot design.”