State elections division dealing with underage voters

OLYMPIA -- The state Elections Division said Friday that state officials are working on tougher screening to make sure that newly registered 17-year-olds do not vote in elections before they turn 18.

The division received a complaint from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation on Friday alleging that underage voters were allowed to cast ballots in the Feb. 19 presidential primary. The state has 30 days to respond to the complaint, which was brought under the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The state may dismiss the case as outside the scope of HAVA, resolve it informally with an acceptable remedy, or authorize a formal proceeding.

Nick Handy, the state elections director, said the division has been hard at work on the situation for months, working with the EFF and the counties.

“We are very aware of the situation and we have a team working to develop tougher safeguards against underage voting,” Handy said. “We are very engaged with this issue.

“We are not aware of any underage voters in the primary and general elections in 2007 election, but a relatively small number of 17-year-olds did register before the 2008 presidential primary, saying that they would be 18 by the time of the next election. They illegally voted in the presidential primary on Feb. 19, but had not turned 18. The system of screening for underage voters had been working well, but this year, we had a huge influx of new young voters and it appears that we may have had four underage voters take part in the presidential primary _ one each in Thurston, King, Stevens and Whitman counties.”

Handy said the state currently has 31 registrations of 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the general election, but not by the August primary.  Procedures are in place to notify the counties and screen these voters out of the primary election.

“We strongly encourage young people to register and to vote, but we will be vigilant in helping to ensure that only people who have reached their 18th birthday actually cast ballots.”

July 19 in the deadline for mail-in or online registration for the Aug. 19 primary. All but Pierce and King counties are voting entirely by mail and ballots must be  postmarked by Aug. 19.  The general election is Nov. 4.