PORT TOWNSEND — Despite calls from Jefferson County Republicans to delay action, two county commissioners authorized a move to abandon traditional polling places for an all-mail voting system.
Following a public hearing Monday morning, Commissioners Pat Rodgers, R-Brinnon, and Phil Johnson, D-Port Townsend, took the recommendation of county Auditor Donna Eldridge to establish all vote-by-mail in Jefferson County.
Commissioner David Sullivan was in Harborview Medical Center hospital in Seattle on Monday, recovering from injuries sustained in a fall from a bluff near his home on Sunday, and did not vote.
Eldridge, who oversees the county’s elections operation, said the commissioners had until June to make a decision, but she was concerned about meeting the September election deadline.
Eldridge also said the county’s voting trend was largely moving toward all-mail anyway.
“I think out voting population is saying that we want this,” Eldridge said.
The numbers would support that, with 66 percent of county voters casting their ballots by mail last year and 72 percent in 2002.
Monday’s commissioners decision makes the whole North Olympic Peninsula vote-by-mail. Clallam dumped the Election Day polling place method in 2002.
$6,000 savings
Eldridge in mid-April told the commissioners that going to all-mail balloting would save the county $6,000 a year.
In addition to Clallam, four counties vote by mail: Ferry, Okanogan, Pend Oreille and Skamania.
And Jefferson isn’t alone: Mason, Whatcom, Lewis, Skagit and Yakima counties are in the process of switching.
