Kink County Elections Violate Federal Law
So I got delayed at work, scrambled to find a stamp, and get to the post office. I get there before 8:00 pm and find that its last collection time was 5:00pm. So I drive to another and find its collection time is 5:30pm. So I call the 206-296-VOTE number on my ballot and nobody is answering the phone.
I just mail the thing. It's after 8:00 now. Horse. Door. Barn.
When I get home I find that on the back of the envelope that the ballot _came_ _in_ is the notice that you can return your ballot to special drop boxes by 8:00. The offered ways to find those drop boxes is to check in your "voters pamphlet" (which I left home this morning since I didn't think I'd need it), go to a web site and search for drop-boxes (hard to do while driving, especially if you don't have an expensive iPhone), or call the phone number nobody answered that didn't have any automated message mentioning drop boxes or anything.
My nearest drop box was, by the way, located in a shopping center that has a big Chinese food place and a McDonalds but not any sort of municipal feature (like say a post office).
If the drop boxes had been, say, chained to the drive-by mail boxes at the post offices then the whole "don't actually need a stamp" and "likely to be found while looking to 'vote by mail'" bases would have been covered.
So I was effectively charged 44cents to not have my vote counted because my "polls" closed early.
I can't be the only person in the county to make one or more of these mistakes.
Quick Poll: did _you_ know about the drop boxes that would let you vote for free? Do you think that providing a total of _ELEVEN_ such drop boxes for a county with something like 2 million people in it grants the reasonable expectation of voting for free?
The envelopes should have been postage-paid (I'm pretty sure the county would get a bulk rate, and they would only pay for the ballots not dropped off at the 11 convenient drop-box locations).
"Vote By Mail" should have been the _second_ option listed instead of plastered all over the ballots with one mention of "[star]NEW[/star]blah blah free option".
I just mail the thing. It's after 8:00 now. Horse. Door. Barn.
When I get home I find that on the back of the envelope that the ballot _came_ _in_ is the notice that you can return your ballot to special drop boxes by 8:00. The offered ways to find those drop boxes is to check in your "voters pamphlet" (which I left home this morning since I didn't think I'd need it), go to a web site and search for drop-boxes (hard to do while driving, especially if you don't have an expensive iPhone), or call the phone number nobody answered that didn't have any automated message mentioning drop boxes or anything.
My nearest drop box was, by the way, located in a shopping center that has a big Chinese food place and a McDonalds but not any sort of municipal feature (like say a post office).
If the drop boxes had been, say, chained to the drive-by mail boxes at the post offices then the whole "don't actually need a stamp" and "likely to be found while looking to 'vote by mail'" bases would have been covered.
So I was effectively charged 44cents to not have my vote counted because my "polls" closed early.
I can't be the only person in the county to make one or more of these mistakes.
Quick Poll: did _you_ know about the drop boxes that would let you vote for free? Do you think that providing a total of _ELEVEN_ such drop boxes for a county with something like 2 million people in it grants the reasonable expectation of voting for free?
The envelopes should have been postage-paid (I'm pretty sure the county would get a bulk rate, and they would only pay for the ballots not dropped off at the 11 convenient drop-box locations).
"Vote By Mail" should have been the _second_ option listed instead of plastered all over the ballots with one mention of "[star]NEW[/star]blah blah free option".